I was allowed to take a small break to the public restrooms as apparently it was ‘bad taste’ to leave someone who was sent to duel… to be covered in dust, grim, ash, and nearly puking due to the odd habit of human biology preferring to have more blood than chemicals and stimulants within your body.
So I was ‘blessed’ to take a short break and empty my stomach inside of a nearby toilet instead of on the floor… because according to everyone else… watching someone take one step on the property and looking healthy… only to suddenly turn into a bleeding, coughing, crippled mess before an openly rigged duel… was considered ‘impolite’.
Yes… the exact words were ‘impolite’ as if sudden and very obvious cheating held the same level of courtesy as… tripping on a sidewalk or getting your sunday’s best wet in the rain.
“At least with Kornea they were upfront about it.” I muttered in mild annoyance “Blatant cheating of course, but people would acknowledge blatant cheating… especially your allies.”
That was probably the bit that annoyed me the most. This city ran of Fae Rules and Logic. There was obvious twisting of words and meanings to the point that you needed an almanac to look over every possible meaning of a word in order to ensure that the other party wouldn’t cheat you.
Saying they wouldn’t lay a hand on you only prevented them from touching you with their hands. Saying that nobody remembered was because they all had their memories wiped away. Saying that you would be safe until sunrise would have them either turn you into a literal safe… or stuff you inside one regardless of how many bones the process broke.
“No wonder the Eldritch seem to have a grudge against them.” I muttered trying to take another shot of something that was supposed to help heal me “If I knew it would have been this blatant I would have tried bringing a bomb with a deadman’s switch.
Yes it wouldn’t activate until I was dead and thus killing everyone else if I died… but that felt like it would be in the same vein of ‘following the rules’ like everyone else!
I pulled out my cell phone and called Futurm as I tried to get over the tangled mess of emotions I had been feeling as the cold dread of nearly dying had started to get suppressed to the back of my mind. That ‘lovely’ package could be opened up again around six AM in the morning.
I just needed to focus on the present and ignore that sweet blissful moment that I had felt watching each vampire die before me… that wonderful surge of vindication that I had survived despite the odds… the wonderful madness as I tried to kill the witch when her vampires failed to kill me after the one sided rigged duel!
The phone picked up on the other end “Boss… things aren’t looking good for you.”
The reply snapped me back into reality much like how that witch just causally made my victory meaningless… all of the dead vampires? Alive. All of the wounds I had obtained? Still here… the fact that I won the onsided duel?
Ignored.
“I know…” I said, trying to wash the vampire ash off my face “How are the bots working? If they got fried during the fight…”
It was a dark day that I trusted a devious imp far more than my own freaking human ‘allies’ to keep me safe. Sure he was a devious manipulative little creature trying to tempt me into doing something I’d regret… but at least he was trying to keep me alive!
“Not fired… just unable to cheat.”The imp replied with a hint of annoyance “Also the dame’s crazy eldritch BS made a mess of the systems. Got it patched up, but I have two recorded videos operating at the same time.”
I took a deep breath “Two?”
“Yah, two videos boss.” The imp repeated as I could hear him scratching his head “Whatever eldritch nonsense she did prevented any weapons on the drones from working for clip one. For clip two you just got an extra long ride with traffic until you arrived there ‘after’ you won the duel.”
As much as I wanted to believe him I had to relay upon my paranoia… or ask ‘why’ he hadn’t called me in the car informing me about a duel I wasn’t having. Because if this was involved Para’dax…
“Paranoia check.” I informed the imp “Call or no call?”
“No call, but good job on the shanking boss.” The imp spoke with a hint of pride “Though you really should have gotten a scarf or something. That vampire might not have treated you like a disposable blood bag after he hacked your stick in half.”
No call? That narrowed down the options as it meant that everyone outside of the area was still operating on normal logic… or something. I pulled out a crude notepad and wrote it down every little bit of info helped out.
“If I wore a scarf he would have torn it off before breaking my arms, and then tried sucking me dry.” I spoke with a bitter chuckle “Do you really think I would have stood a chance if he was taking me as a serious threat?”
“Maybe if the peanut gallery tried helping.” The imp spat out in anger “Seriously. She gets to pick the location and weapon while you go in blind? Why not toss you both in a pit and bury everyone alive. See who can live the longest without air and call it ‘durability’ or something?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose as that would have been the smart thing to do, but this was a duel and from what I was getting this crowd liked flashy duels. Having a onesides duel may not have been fun… but if it was quick then my ‘death’ would only be seen as the opening play before the ‘real duel’ between the heirs.
Think Roman gladiatorial arenas. Sure the crowd knew it would be a one sided fight tossing a bunch of peasants without any weapons against a pack of lions… but as long as they screamed loudly while the lions ripped them to shreds the crowd didn’t care.
So long as it was a spectacle.
“Think with more Ego than sense and that’s what we are facing here.” I took a deep breath as I jotted that detail in my notepad “Still… find anything odd about the conversation I had with the witch?”
I tried to write down all of the details I could remember about the duel. What worked, what failed, what happened before the reset… that was a little bit more tricky due to blood loss and whatever was left pumping through my veins instead of blood.
“Three heirs and she didn’t name you one of them…” Futurm confirmed “either something funny is going on or that second heir she has isn’t who she claims to be.”
“Second heir?” I asked trying to put the pieces together
“Yep.” Futurm spoke as I could hear the rustle of paper “Green dress, knife, matches the ‘before pic’ quite well. This whole ‘trial’ business requires one of them living or dying right?”
My own brief experience suggested a third alternative, but that still left five heirs at maximum… so either somebody was lying or there was a loophole that nobody had paid attention to.
The imp must have thought the same “What are the exact qualifications, boss? I mean Reanimators could bring’em back to life. Bone Takers for bodies, and if Necromancers are real then I guess they could make an undead… or vampires? That both technically dead, but still kicking right?”
I thought about Agatha Willow for a moment as technically she had died… only to have stolen a new body through some Fae magical trickery. Did she count as one of the heirs or did the body count as one of the heirs?
This felt like an important distinction because if you just needed a body or perhaps a ‘bloodline’ to make it work… I glanced at some of the blood stained cloth I had used to try to clean up my neck wound.
I wasn’t born here, but I counted as a Heir… how exactly did that work? Was something added to my blood to make me qualify or was it some sort of pseudo mystic binding? If it was literally in my blood then what was stopping someone else from doing a bit of ‘creative surgery’ to gain a new magical bloodline?
Davin was certainly an expert in the ‘creative surgery’ department.
“You know…” Frustration crept into my voice as I tried to think of all the possible loopholes to this problem “Life was much easier when I only had one simple list of corpse related problems.”
“You thought of a loophole already?” The imp asked
I tapped where my heart was “Far more than I’d like. What I do remember was that before the other four left the city limits their memories had been tampered with. The city officials had their pictures and some memories of them… but they forgot two of them as two new picks filled into their slots.”
Averia had no memories of a car drive with me and the other four heirs. One of the girls who had been ‘forgotten’ was now walking about as nobody knew who she was. Did she count as one of the heirs… and if so then why couldn’t anyone remember her?
What kept her from having a history written about her living within this thrice cursed city? Better yet… Why did she bother coming back? What was so damn valuable to have her risk her neck to try and obtain it?
“Okay we might be dealing with seven or eight heirs depending on where Agatha Willow lies on the board…” I muttered in growing frustration “And that's if the ‘original unlucky campers cast’ are not added as spare pieces for the board.”
A normal person might think that counting the original cast of people from that night would have been absurd… but this was fairy tale nonsense we were running on. If we were in Kornea the hard limit would be five people, but that was already out the window!
For goodness sake! The number might range from five to five hundred for all I knew! Did siblings of the other heirs still count for the drawing pool? Did digging up old dead heirs and bringing them back to life count? Could someone just clone a bunch of copies or do a bit of open heart surgery to move those numbers around!
Forget fireballs, magical cauldrons, or any of those ‘magical reasons’ why the mundane human world wouldn’t accept the magical world. No the real reason why they kept themselves hidden from the regular world was their stupid magic legal system!
If I showed this to any sane citizen they would rise up in arms to either burn down the laws… or use it as kindling as they also tried to burn the idiots and the city who made it just to be safe!
“Okay let’s focus on the current issue.” I muttered trying to focus on what was trying to kill me today instead of next week “Do you think time travel is involved? Something related to Para’dax or something?”
“No dice boss.” The imp muttered in disgruntlement “She got injured in the fight and didn’t loop back with the scratch. You did… even the eldritch play by rules. You can’t undo what you experience and they hate those who cheat Pacts.”
Translation? If one of them were helping out then she would be the one getting the raw end of the deal instead of me.
Pinching the bridge of my nose I tried to calm down. If I got real desperate then maybe I could call upon eldritch aid… oh sure it would be the Godzilla option in this scenario, but it meant I had a card to play if things get hectic.
There was a bit of talking on the other side of the phone as it seemed like Futurm and whoever was with him were having a small argument. I waited as arguments were good… it mean that somebody had an idea on what to do.
“It’s a bit more complicated.” The imp spoke much to my disbelief “Video one had the duel. Video two had the car stall before traffic extended the car drive. We didn’t make a phone call and when the first clip ended he popped up as video two kept playing only with video one injuries!”
More disgruntled talking in the background. Something that sounded like swearing as I could practically see the little imp shoving the laptop into someone’s face to prove his point. Something odd was going on here and we seemed to be the only ones noticing it.
I tried to think of what we had incommon and if there was a safe way to bring this ‘immunity’ to everyone else without planning a side trip back to Kornea and getting eldritch aid.
“Plans?” I asked after a few more seconds
“Call Necara.” Futurm spoke without missing a beat “I mean if it’s asking for help or dying…”
“No Futurm. Even if I could I wouldn’t do something as stupid as that.” I lied to the imp “Besides we don’t even know if the magical barrier around the city was built to keep Eldritch interference from bothering this place.”
The imp snapped his fingers as I gave him a logical excuse instead of the main reason for it. I mean I would do it if things got desperate, but even then… Para’dax would be the safer option. At Least the fallout from that judgement call would only affect everyone inside the building than everyone inside the city.
Better to scale up than to toss the biggest bomb first and hope that I didn’t get caught in the explosion.
“Burn bright?” The imp replied “I mean you do have more esoteric elements and this wouldn’t be your first looper you got stuck fighting.”
“I never fought one.” I muttered in mild annoyance. “Only those who ‘claimed’ to be one… and most of them were idiots.”
“Not yet.” The imp spoke in a smug tone.
I took one long deep breath as I tried my very best to get one very simple fact across Futurm. The one tiny little detail that he along with a couple of other imps didn’t seem to understand.
“I wear a red shirt or jacket… but that does not mean that anyone else wearing a red shirt or jacket is actually me.” I tried to once again explain to the little imp “You simply saw another red cloak wearing individual who was going with a similar color based scheme. I have already shot three magicians of black and four Dark Skull Overlords as two of them were trying to kill each other because they picked the same title.”
There was that long pause as this was the reason why it tried avoiding names sticking to me. Yes the ‘red shirt’ bit kind of stuck because I liked red… but it was also because it was easier to hide when you were actually bleeding to death.
Especially when you tied the signature jacket or shirt to a stick and hid. Then it was just a matter of lining up the shot while they opened fire on the dummy you set up.
Never underestimate the power of Loony Toon Tactics!
“Oh sure.” The imp spoke not believing a word of it “And I’m just supposed to expect that it was another red jacket who managed to tick of Nicka’li, deal with Para’dax, and just so happen to be carrying a gun that wasn’t built back then.”
“Yes.” I spoke much to his annoyance “It wouldn’t surprise me if there was another ‘Red Shirt squad’ fighting over the title until the last one left alive would be declared the new ‘Magician of Red’ by the time you get back to Kornea.”
I released a deep sigh as I checked my ribs… lots of bruising, and my body was kind of beat up. The kevlar vest kept any shards of glass from hitting me, but there was far too much glass being shaken out of the vest… and not enough vials that hadn’t been shattered during the fight.
“You may just need to win two more times.” A new voice spoke up “Even by the laws of Magic the rule of three still applies as the third trial is the one that sticks.”
I rolled my eyes “So two more trials where she could send ‘Ashy the Vampire’ to beat me senseless and drain me dry. Do they have a bunch of sugar cookies and juice for me to snack on while I take a nap?”
“You are not allowed to repeat a trial or tactic previously done.” The voice explained “It must be a new challenge or tactic. Only the first attempt may work… repeating the same attempt shall always end in failure.”
“Got it preacher.” The imp muttered in reluctance “You don’t need to kill ‘Ashy’ a second time. You just have to deal with the next threat in the slot. I packed the lantern just in case you needed it!”
The lantern with the green flame was currently sitting on the bathroom floor as I had mixed feelings about bringing that into a fight. On one hand if the enemy was going to blatantly cheat then having it in reserve would be useful.
The problem was that I didn’t get to use it within a safe spot under my own rules. I viewed the lantern in the same way a nuclear engineer would view plutonium. It was man made, useful in controlled circumstances, and most people run away screaming when those controlled safeguards are removed.
“Low odds are better than no odds” Futurm practically whispered in place of my shoulder demon.
I sighed as that was the problem with shoulder demons… they made pretty damned convincing arguments that you knew was a bad idea… but a very tempting idea nonetheless.
“Deploy the drones, as I’ll need to save the lantern for round three.” I said while pocketing three of the drones for my own protection “I’ll try just a bit of the Eternal Flame into the frying pan spell for this round, but nothing big.”
The green eldritch flame was esoteric, but I had the unlucky moment where I had to try weaving some of it into the first spell I had ever been taught. I just needed to keep the range of deviancy into a safe limit… or one that I could survive.
“It will have to be indoors if you want to use the drones.” The imp replied “Clipping issues are still a problem and your ‘Loony Toon Tricks’ need coverage… coverage that requires the drones to be on a ceiling as those vampires better not float around to block the feeds.”
It was stupid, silly, and just as likely to get myself killed… but I was running low of supplies and blood. Checking the small tablet and making sure it had a good connection… There was a knock on the door as my time for prep work was over.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Walking out of the bathroom I sighed as Mr Knight kept scowling at the vampires who were looking at the bathroom like a free buffet room. Finding out that my blood was good enough to drink despite garlic acting like acid to their tongues wasn’t the greatest revelation today.
From out of the other bathroom Averia walked out dressed in what looked like leather armor and carrying a few items of her own. She looked at me in slight embarrassment before placing a hand on my shoulder as I knew what she was going to say.
“She challenged me.” I told her “Just so long as I can catch her before she cheats a second time. Then I’ll be good.”
“She meant to challenge me.” Averia spoke in a calm tone “Besides… What are going to do if she picks strength? Try to stumble towards her and beat her with a broken staff?”
“She won’t.” I informed the half-elf much to her confusion “Pride won’t allow her.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in pride.” She spoke with a hint of a smile.
If what the ‘preacher’ said was correct then her fairy tale magic would ensure that Ashy the Vampire would be doomed to fail a second time. She still had more tricks up her sleeves and now she knew that she couldn’t just treat me like the opening half-show.
“Because she will want answers and trying to beat me to death with my ‘crutch’ will not look very dignified in front of everyone.” I half-lied to everyone as they stared at me as if I was insane.
Still it was partly true as I remembered her from that first night. She wanted to know what was up with my eyes, how I survived, and more importantly… how much I knew.
I was the random piece that fell outside of her plans. Not a ‘Spanner in the works’ mind you… that was probably the small army resting outside. She had no assurances that whatever ‘trick’ that allowed me to slip out of her curse wouldn’t also apply to the literal army waiting outside.
So I was expecting her to try and wessel a few answers out of me before trying to kill me… and I just needed to have her establish a Pact to try and get some straight answers out of her… before word got out that Pacts beat crooked magical contracts.
“Answers?” Averia spoke not believing a word of it “And I’m just supposed to…”
“Deal with the other heir.” I broke the news as she and the others stared at me in disbelief “You should probably talk to your dad about the other heir she has set up for the duel.”
The half-elf blinked, unsure of what was going on, but I used the remains of my staff to more or less hobble over to the room where Round Two was taking place.
----------------------------------------
The room was obviously modified for this specific purpose as I’m not even sure if the residents had asked why a room like this had been built. The room was built like a gladiator ring of old if only updated just enough to make someone mistake it as a spare teaching classroom or for somebody in a business suit to start up a clip show… or something.
Salt and Ash. They might actually have Robot Battle Arena fights in this room on Saturday nights for all I knew. If you wanted something done then you could find excuses to force everyone else to go along with them.
The hard polished wooden floors had been buffed to a nice shine. The stands had vampires setting up seats as they prepared to see the blood sport play out once again. They even had the hostages sitting up in the seats as I knew this place was messed up.
The family was worn, tired, and the wife was holding a towel to her neck looking a lot paler and thinner than she should… yet there was a look of excitement on her face as if she won front row seats to a sports game! The husband glanced at the vampires like they were some annoying heckler in the stands… instead of their kidnappers.
“Get them out of here.” I spoke pointing at the hostages I had been dragged here to help out “I’d rather not have them get hit by ‘friendly fire’ half-way through the duel.”
There were a few confused looks as Averia spoke with a shake of her head “Stray shots? Surely you wouldn't plan on harming them…”
I pulled out my revolver and waved it around “Gun, bullets, shield block bullets and it bounces off and might hit somebody. You’ve got cameras in this room. Just have them watch outside the room as my current state tells you just how much I trust your ‘word’ you crazy witch!”
Agatha Willow frowned, but she motioned for the vampires to escort the family over to Mr Hawkings. The idiots actually looked slightly offended at being denied the show until they actually got a good look at me.
“You attacked someone before a duel?” The wife spoke as if beating someone up before a duel was somehow more inexcusable than being kidnapped and fed upon by vampires.
“I can solemnly swear that no one here had attacked him.” The witch spoke in a calm tone.
I waved Mr Stabby Ton “And I’ll swear on my life that she did. If I lie, then let me die.”
All eyes fell upon me as the husband sort of squinted as I felt something brush up against me like spider web. He glanced back at the witch who had kidnapped him as if trying to sense if one of us was lying.
It was an old trick.
Technically she wasn’t lying because nobody ‘had’ attacked me. The attack had happened before the loop… and the only proof was the very obvious disheveled state that I was in.
Despite popular belief it was in fact quite easy to be dishonest without telling a single lie. You didn’t even need supernatural powers to have people learn how to weave truths into something more twisted than lies.
Lawyers and politicians had learned that art before steam engines existed.
I glanced at the wife and remembered something. “She did promise that you would be treated like guests instead of blood bags if the council brought the heirs to accept her duel… by having us challenge her when she is the one challenging us.”
The wife quickly nodded and more or less dragged her husband and children out the door as Agatha Willow wore an etched business smile and just stared at one of the vampires. The vampire in question started to move until his ‘allies’ grabbed him and brought the blood sucker over to the witch.
“One moment…” She spoke as the family stopped “I promised your family would leave in good health and… I would hate to be called a liar.”
She pulled out a long serrated knife as the captured vampire tried to scream before he was silenced. The knife tore through his stomach as blood didn’t spill on the floor… it just gathered into a ball and floated in the witch’s hand.
She pulled out her wands and seemed to stir the blood with her wand a little before a long red thin line danced through the air and touched the wife. Her skin regained its color as she looked healthy now… healthier to the point it looked that she might have been healthier than before she was kidnapped.
“I thank you for keeping your word.” The woman spoke as she made a slight bow “Even if your associates sought to foul it.”
The vampire with the bleeding stomach smiled thinking that this was the end of his punishment. It was a pained hopeful smile that lasted until Agatha Willow took one look at me and smiled. A brief look of horror filled his face as the witch shoved the knife back into the vampire’s stomach before twisting it.
His voice was lost to the void, but you could somehow hear that silent scream of agony and pain as she extracted even more blood from him and tried sending a new thin red line of blood to heal my wounds.
The moment it touched my skin it burned as I knocked it aside. The line of blood splattered against the ground practically cackling as if it was gunpowder that had just been lit. The other vampires stared at the fallen blood as Agatha’s smile twitched for a moment.
“Sorry…” I muttered rubbing my arm “Wrong blood type?”
There was a pause as I was still a bit paranoid about being given free magical healing from my opponent. If there was a chance to rig the fights then why not poison me before the fight or worse… heal me, but have some sort of curse ready to activate because of some obscure Fae logic?
She reset time and the first ‘pact’ I made in this city was someone promising not to kill me and then immediately trying to have some sort of magical contract kill me before we finished shaking hands.
I deserved to be paranoid!
“Or maybe it was not given freely.” Ashy the vampire spoke “Lady Willow if you would.”
The witch blinked, forgetting about the vampire she had practically gutted “Are you sure?”
Ashy smiled “It would be a poor host to allow insults to be given without making amends. A guest has been harmed while an opponent crippled. The vampires fell under my domain and thus my responsibility to make amends.”
“You don’t have to…” I spoke as the vampire kneeled like a knight of old “I can…”
The witch nodded as she slit his throat. Blood followed the same method as this time the red substance forced itself through my skin somehow as I could feel a little bit less dizzy even if my paranoia only grew.
The only saving grace was that Ashy might have died… only to watch the vampire stand up and grab the one who had been stabbed in the stomach and bite into his neck. The neck wound healed and yet he still continued feeding until the injured one turned to ash before my eyes.
Ashy the vampire pulled out a red handcloth and wiped his lips as if he had just finished a meal… instead of killing another vampire. The rest of the group didn’t argue as the vampire underlings grabbed a dustpan and broom to remove the ‘one who brought insult’ from the room.
Agatha Willow simply smiled as she replied “I take my oaths and words seriously. Now that the trash has been taken out…”
Agatha Willow motioned to the table and chairs that I hadn’t really noticed until now. Maybe it was magic or the sheer unease of seeing a room full of vampires with very few exits to escape through… or maybe she just had used magic to summon them here?
“Please sit Kravos…” Agatha spoke as she sat in one of the chairs “I would like to try and see if we could talk things out instead of having to duel.”
“No thanks Agatha.” I muttered out loud “I’ve already been subtly threatened enough times to…”
“Why do you keep calling me Agatha?” The witch spoke as if it wasn’t obvious “She had died…”
“Your hair is black. Rose’s is red. I can literally see it.” I spoke in mild frustration “Second Law. Kornea…”
Another repeat happened except this time a pair of vampires were not restraining me. Agatha Willow was now almost forcibly holding my eye open as I knew she was examining my eyes again… or was this the first time for her?
“Where did you get those eyes?” She asked almost repeating the same scene again “I…”
It was the same offer, but I cut her off “Get killed, have the surgery done to your eyes, and then have a reanimator bring you back to life.”
There was a long and awkward pause as now everyone was staring at me. Okay it did sound nuts and they were probably waiting to see what the real answer was… or wondering why I had done such a thing to myself.
“A reanimator owed me a favor and I had a contract set up for some…” I rubbed my neck “Work to be done to my body should I perish. It was less painful than being… alive through the procedure, but it was good work.”
“You died… as in died to get this work done?” Agatha spoke in mild disbelief
I nearly laughed as it probably sounded insane “Oh no I was killed and I just had a reanimator do a bit of work before he brought me back to life. Seriously, the council has records of bringing other people back to life.”
If I was going to be dead then why not use that spare time to get some work done? Yes, that probably said something about my sanity, but you could take a few more risks if you had insurance set up… I mean I had pushed Akara out of a skyscraper and watched his body or ‘splat’ when it hit the pavement so I knew they were good at their job.
There was a long awkward pause as apparently the realization that I had died before took a bit of time for them to adjust… while Mr Hawkings just looked a bit more stressed as he inched closer to the exit.
“I think a trade of information is needed before we proceed to talks then.” Agatha Willow spoke as she stared at my eyes with a new sense of unease.
“And I don’t think you understand the problem.” I informed her “Even if you kill me there is a literal freaking army camping outside with orders to kill the ‘witch’ who broke the Second Law. Maybe you kill me or maybe I kill you only to have you hope into a new body… but the folks outside don’t care.”
Agatha chuckled “What do you think they would do? Burn the entire city down to get me?”
“No.” I informed her as she was about to say something witty “They would tear this city from existence and level it to dust.”
The laughter stopped as she stared at me waiting to call me out… to not ‘believe’ that someone would be ‘that petty’ and yet there was that growing sense of unease.
“You literally have a contract placed on your head.” I informed her “The real reason why I’m not afraid? Turns out the folks outside have offered ‘free resurrection services’ for anyone trying to kill you. If I die then they can toss my corpse outside the city limits so that I get a free respawn.”
Oh it was a complete and utter lie as Akara would have been gagged, bound, and dragged back to Kornea so that he could do something extra nasty to me… but there was just enough truth to make her look very uneasy by my statement.
How much of that was the truth and how much of it was a lie didn’t matter. I had information she needed and she had an army that she couldn’t ignore if she won this duel.
“Are you sure there aren’t any questions you would want answers to?” Agatha spoke as she moved her hand to the wand on her side.
I wanted to say ‘yes’ and get this over with, but I needed to check one tiny little question first… How much did she know about Kornea?
I held up a finger and pretended to think about the offer “Okay… who is the girl in the green dress with a knife?” Agatha seemed surprised by my question “I’m asking due to… personal issues alright?”
“Personal… issues?” Agatha spoke clearly interested in my reason “Care to explain?”
“Second Law.” I muttered “If you don’t get it then you don’t deserve the answer.”
The witch held her chin in her hand as she deliberately took her time to think about my answer. This was one of the questions that had been bugging me and as much as I hated to admit it… getting this question solved was for my own personal piece of mind.
It was then Agatha Willow cracked an unnerving smile that made me think ‘oh you just screwed up Dais’ as a shiver ran up my spine as she pointed at Averia.
“No urge or desire to shoot her?” Agatha spoke as Averia had left a very loud clear objection
“Yes or no.” I spoke as the dam witch knew what I was asking. “Remember I’ve dealt with reanimators so dead people coming back to life isn’t new to me.”
“Only if you agree to sit at the table.” Agatha practically spoke in a sing-song tune as I bregringly nodded my head “The answer is No.”
She answered the question without actually answering it… she was running by Fae story logic then. More importantly it meant that she might be hungry enough to actually try taking up a Pact thinking she could slip out of it with ease.
Cheap as it may be… I wouldn’t exactly object if she was taken out by a Pact Rebound.
“Table.” Agatha spoke as Ashy the vampire pulled the chair back “As now it is time for my question.”
I walked over to the table as the vampires moved to block Averia from joining me.
There was a look of unease, pain… and a personal hatred in her eyes “Aren’t there any questions you want to ask me, you cold hearted hag?”
The cold hearted hag turned around and looked at her with open disinterest “No. I already cursed your father and I have a good idea what weave your mother tried.”
“Mother?” I asked glancing back at Averia and Agatha Willow “Do you mean she isn’t…”
“First word of advice Kravos. Fae are quite skilled at slipping out of even the most seemingly iron clad contracts.” Agatha Willow spoke with open annoyance “He would love no other than me… and that woman found a loophole. A child born from me without me.”
The wand actually snapped in her grip as she stared at it with slight embarrassment as she broke one of her weapons from petty anger. That was one less weapon I had to worry about and it showed that the witch could make mistakes.
“You were right Kravos…” Averia spoke as she glared at Agatha Willow “She really is too prideful to admit that she can lose.”
Agatha Willow smiled revealing all of her teeth as she spoke in a slow deliberate tone “You will die tonight puppet.”
The half-elf girl gave her the one finger salute not daring to be outdone as the vampires more or less pushed her out of sight and view as Agatha Willow sat back in her seat so that Ashy could push the chair in. To my surprise he pulled out my chair as… Most people trying to kill me generally weren’t this civil.
Ashy started operating more like a butler than an undead murder knight as he pulled out a tea set. There was a small burner keeping the tea hot as he carefully poured a glass out for Agatha and left a small bowl of sugar cubes and milk. The witch took her time making sure her tea was just right before she motioned for the various sets of tea and cookies to be presented for me to pick.
I just pulled out a bottle of water from my coat “Your question for mine?”
Agatha smiled “Straight to the point then… how did you get those injuries?”
I bit my lip as she didn’t know? I was pretty certain she was behind it… or was there a cost to it? Some sort of side effect that prevented her from remembering? For all I know it might have been on purpose as experiencing it might keep any injuries you obtained…
Something one would want to avoid when trying to avoid one’s death.
“A pact then?” I asked, holding out my hand “I give the honest truth in exchange for you doing the same.”
She stared at my hand for a few seconds before letting out a frustrated hiss “I’m changing my question. What exactly are you doing? I tend not to shake hands with what feels like a cattle prod being pointed at me.”
“Beloved by the Spire.” I half-lied to her “You have your magic. I have mine. Contracts have loopholes. Pacts go by the spirit of the pact instead of the letter.”
She asked and I had to answer if only to ensure that if she broke the Pact then the rebound would affect her instead of me. The witch glanced at my hand wondering if I was telling the truth before she clasped my hand.
I could feel the Pact starting to work its magic, but unlike everyone else I had bargained with… she felt different. The best way to describe it was as if I had taken a particularly rotten vegetable and felt it squish within my grasp.
I did my best to hide the rising urge of disgust as it felt like something dripping across my hand making me want to wash it under scalding hot water right away. To wipe my hands against the table, scraping whatever had clung to my skin and making me feel sick to my stomach.
Ironically Agatha Willow didn’t seem to react nearly as badly as I did as she just glanced at her hand studying it for a few moments. There was a weight of… presence about her. Just the air getting thicker as her presence seemed harder to ignore before it… just vanished.
She took a long sip from her cup before placing it down “Your question? Would you like to know the true value of the Witch’s Hill? What the Witch’s Legacy actually is… or something more personal?”
The words were spoken as a whisper as I could feel them trying to slither into my ear before the words burned away. I could practically hear her ‘tisk’ as she had tried to magically influence me… which made her the most dangerous person within this city.
So I went as blunt as possible “Daughters. How?”
“I always had daughters…” Agatha flinched in pain before taking another sip of her tea “But one minor question first… how much do you remember Lost Traveler?”
“My question first.” I informed her
“My question is needed for your answer.” She replied without wincing in pain.
Either she was getting better at hiding it… or she found a loophole as she might need information in order to explain it to me. It wasn’t exactly uncommon when having to deal or bargain with non-human entities that lacked human understanding.
Especially when you wanted certain details understood to prevent a misunderstanding that could cost you your life.
“Funny in a cruel way, that fate can let one marry, remarry, and marry again while the rest of us never even got to try taking a swing at it?” I tried to quote as Agatha Willow stopped drinking her tea.
She put the cup down and stared at me not with an idle passing interest… but one that let me know that she was now seeing me as a threat. It wasn’t that I knew who she was… it was that I still remembered most of that night.
“Funny…” She spoke in an idle tone pretending my words hadn’t bothered her “But I take it the cards have been played differently for you as well?”
She glanced at Averia and Nadel as my own fragmented memories flared up a little… whatever trick she had tried to pull off apparently and spilled over to me a little.
“Second Law.” I spoke as I took a small sip from my bottle of water mixed with a dash of esoteric enhancement “The memories aren’t mine so they don’t count. I’m not that person no matter what they say.”
“Two sets…” She spoke with an open scientific interest “But if you must know… They are your memories and their memories are real. Both sets of memories are real.” Before I could speak she pulled out a plastic baton “My turn. What is this?”
I stared at it as I knew she was trying to cheat the pact “Honest answer…”
She winced before cursing out “It’s complicated and worth two. You won’t understand without asking a second question.”
The pressure seemed to lessen as I sighed “A wand. Specifically one from Kornea built as a flamethrower.”
She slipped it back into her robes before nodding “As a bonus I’ll tell you why… Rose had this on her and unleashed it upon her attackers. They captured and tried to rewrite her fate… and since she had this they thought her domain was fire and this it was reflected upon her as ‘red heads’ tend to have claim over the domain of fire.”
I glanced at the vampire who was still serving tea “Translation?”
“Oh he can’t hear any of this.” Agatha spoke, taking a few cookies for herself “Spell circle to prevent anyone else from hearing… and as I said you would need a second question to understand and so you shall. I simply rewrote fate itself.”
The words went in one ear and out the other as… surely I misunderstood that right? This is why Pacts had certain things to help prevent misunderstandings. To help have explanations to prevent them.
Yet I could see the sweat on her head form as she was using her magic to try and hold it off. My own mind tried to piece together the puzzle, but the look in her eyes told me that she wanted to ask her question before giving me a better answer.
Agatha Willow smiled “My turn. Why does your blood bleed black? I don’t know and you seemed to have bled red before at the house.”
I bit my lip as I needed answers… and that was the price wasn’t it?
“I did a few experiments on myself.” I admitted to my annoyance “I was not ‘born with magic’ but I knew enough to fix that issue.”
The pressure from her faded as I didn’t give her a full answer as we both knew it… and accepted it. An equal agreement… and to also show that if she wanted to be tricky with her words then I could be just as tricky.
“How?” she practically hissed, dropping her cup as she stared at me with open greed.
The peanut gallery turned to stare at her as she quickly put on her mask again and picked up the cup before pretending that she had laughed…. That whatever she had heard wasn’t important enough for them to pay attention to.
Still it was that very question that had Davin hunting me.
I held up a hand and shook my head as she ‘humped’ in mild annoyance realizing that it was my turn to ask a question… and I would be just as honest as her… which greatly annoyed her.
“What do you mean by… rewriting fate?” I asked as I held up a hand “I had the misfortune of dealing with the Eldritch and Para’dax treats linearity as a novelty.”
She blinked as the name didn’t ring any bells, but it certainly made her want to ask for further clarification. The vampire had set up a new cup of tea for her as she added her milk and sugar to it before stirring it, but never looked down at the cup as her focus was on me.
“My…” She placed the spoon down “You have traveled quite far.” She chuckled “And here I thought I would have an easy time placing my questions.”
She took a long sip of her tea before glancing at Averia… who now gave the one finger salute with both hands. It might have been childish, but the half-elf knew that it pissed off the body snatching witch.
“My domain is Fate dear boy.” Agatha spoke in a reluctant tone “The Hill? The city? All of it falls under my domain…” A twisted smile fell across her face “Though perhaps an example might be more to the point?”
She held out her hand as now I got the impression of someone trying to shake hands with a cattle prod as whatever magic she was working had twisted around her grip in a mocking attempt to copy a Pact. The fact she pulled it off so easily was rather horrifying.
“Come now Magician… One who sought the Spire for forbidden knowledge should surely seek into the unknown for the answers that you crave.” She spoke in a mocking tone “And have no fear… I promise for it to be temporary as not but a second shall pass.”
I glanced at her hand “And the price? Magic always has a price.”
In Kornea it was a bit easier to figure out. There were rules, guidelines… heck it was more of a Science than a mystical art. Yet even here I was starting to piece together certain rules and prices. Otherwise the magical secret of turning a lump of carbon into a diamond wouldn’t nearly be as ‘amazing’ as it should have been.
Agatha Willow grinned in a way a certain woman might skin a bunch of puppies to make a fur coat “That line right there. I’m going to use that in the future…” I frowned as she shrugged “You have the legal rights to the Hill. I have the magical rights… this is just a sample of what I have to offer if you give me the hill.”
Through clenched teeth and bitter regrets I took her hand as I could feel her magic struggling against the Pact. How it slithered across my flesh as the world seemed to tear itself apart. My mind struggled against it as dozens of strings, lines, weaves fell across my sight.
It was as if the world had been reduced to something else.
Then Agatha Willow held a string and plucked it like a musical instrument “Ah yes… that should do.”
And then the world went black.