A wise man one said ‘Never ask how things can get worse. Fate simply takes it as a challenge.’
I completely believe whoever made that line as not only did I have no idea what was going on… but now the people in charge seemed to be doing their very best to ensure that I had no idea what was going on while putting me in as much danger as possible.
Something about me being a ‘Heir of the Hill’ and the resident boogyman (or woman in this case) had decided to force them to not kill me while one of the people in charge died from a Pact Rebound.
Regular people would have cut their losses and simply accepted the new task… or did their best to try and kick me out of the city. Due to the whole ‘if you try to murder me, then you die first’ deal.
Sadly for me when these people thought ‘Magical Pact’ they went with Fae Logic… which meant they removed me from the very safe, fortified, and filled with police officers wielding guns to shoot anyone who might try to kill me.
In exchange they quite literally dumped me inside a warehouse full of plastic chairs and tables. As an added bonus they made sure it was located on the ‘wrong side’ of the city far from the public in an attempt to limit civilians getting caught in the crossfire… or to limit witnesses.
I was leaning toward the second one after the two ‘bodyguards’ pulled out a metal chain and used those to ‘lock the door’ while placing their chairs near the only exits. One was a small door which we had used to get into the building as the other was the rather large door meant for trucks to drive into the warehouse to be loaded up or unloaded of their stuff.
While most of those tiny details (and lack of protection provided by an entire police force inside the police department) could be over looked as their attempts at ‘magic’ was essentially drawing circles on the ground with salt.
The real kicker was how they talked to each other without even attempting to hide the conversation from me.
“I’m telling you this is a waste of time.” The driver who dumped me here spoke “We should just toss him in a basement and just lock the door. That’ll be enough to fulfill our end of the pact.”
He didn’t give me a name and he dressed not like a police officer, but more like his uniform came from a costume party shop from halloween. His narrow eyes focused on me as his fingers drummed across the calvary sword resting on his side… the fake police officer didn’t even bother carrying a real weapon.
“We bring him into a house and we’ll have to prepare to defend the other homes.” The knight in armor spoke “Remember that Agatha Willow nearly burned down an entire neighborhood during her night of judgement.”
The knight in rusting armor continued to sharpen his sword. This wasn’t a metaphor. He was literally wearing a suit of metal armor and sharpening a real sword!
Were these people allergic to guns or something? I mean they didn’t have any problems sending people with real weapons to try to murder everyone on that crazy night! If bullets didn’t work you simply grabbed bigger guns instead of smaller weapons.
You don’t drop a sword to grab a butter knife if the sword doesn’t work! The same logic applies to guns! If not enough Daka grab bigger Daka!
“Does this idiot look like he’s smart enough to survive pulling off something like that?” The driver asked, shaking his head “The fool nearly got himself killed by agreeing to a contract meant to kill him. Seriously he thinks that a gun is going to keep him alive through the night!”
Yes a Gun.
You know the modern innovation of science and death that made the age of swords go extinct. The funny little object that can level the playing field, shoot faster than you can swing a metal sharp stick, and at much further range than an idiot can swing a sword or shoot an arrow?
Why wouldn’t I want protection against such a thing or want my own revolver with extra ammo given back to me? Especially since you refuse to let me leave while telling me that somebody was going to try and murder me tonight without even bothering to tell me why!
“You do remember that he torched the contract meant to kill them all without even breaking a sweat?” The cosplay witch tried to remind them “Please do not antagonize him while I’m in the same room.”
The driver scoffed muttering “Oh right. Like the Stitch Witch hadn’t found out what Herbick was doing and that this person” he motioned to me in a mocking manner “Managed to kill a council member by himself inside the domain of Law?”
The knight nodded as if it had been obvious that I had nothing to do with the death… just merely a useful pawn that the Stitch Witch planned to make use of after tonight.
I let them argue as the Cosplay Witch tried to argue as she tried building me up as a threat… and the other two treating me like the pig that gets fattened before it gets butchered.
I will admit that I wasn’t a paragon of strength, some grand wizard of elebrate nonsensical rhymes and pseudo latin, or some gritting mercenary that was skilled with all manner of weaponry.
I was a Magician. Half of our tricks of the trade were smoke and mirrors… and keeping my secrets a secret was very important. Even more so when the ‘Bodyguards’ made it clear that they weren’t planning on keeping me alive.
I checked the supplies the Stitch Witch had given me that she had retrieved from my car. I was a little skeptical about trusting the eldritch witch, but she was at least trying to help me even if it was from some nefarious future purpose.
So with that in mind I gathered together my supplies and tried applying some of the oldest tricks of the trade that Kornea had. They didn’t know how my bag of magic tricks worked and I planned to keep it that way if only to ease my own growing paranoia.
Trying to withstand a siege wasn’t going to happen. I only had one gun and a simple van full of thugs with hand guns could probably be enough to take everyone out here… and I highly doubted I would be that lucky.
So with limited time, supplies, and help I simply opted to go with the oldest tradition humanity had when faced with threats they couldn’t possibly beat in a fair fight.
I was going to hide, cheat, and then run away to live another day.
Hey don’t knock Fabian Tactics. They won wars!
With that in mind I went to setting up the first step in trying to survive this night… having set up a proper space by over turning tables and setting up enough proper magic to keep the bag of ‘Mists of the Forgotten’ to working it’s so called magic.
Fun stuff really. A bag of white powder that when lit produced a white mist sort of like a fog machine only with the side effect of making people forget stuff inside the mist. Oh sure you could get around it by not being in the mist or simply wearing a gas mask with goggles… but the same could be said about tear gas and that is still pretty effective!
Sure it wasn’t as fancy as a magicall wall that stopped bullets or a flick of the wrist to unleash a dozen bolts of lightning, but guns were still a thing and enough daka could still take down even the most ‘self-proclaimed’ magician.
That or they simply send a speeding van right into your position if they didn’t have any explosives to chuck at you.
After all it is only overkill if you kill the target. Until then it was simply scaling up until it worked.
“So what are you expecting?” A voice spoke out reminding me that at least one person wasn’t actually pretending I didn’t exist.
I turned around seeing Cosplay Witch who apparently gave up on her argument with the bodyguards and simply opted to sneak into my improvised fort made from overturned tables and chairs. She glanced at the ‘decorations’ I had been placing upon the nearby tables trying to figure out what I was doing.
She still seemed a bit nervous as she kept toying with her jewelry… though from the small glances towards me I know that I frightened her a little due to the whole… Shooting the Stitch Witch in the face.
Ignorance allowed me to not be as terrified at the Stitch Witch as they were, yet she viewed it as a sign of how dangerous I might possibly be… something to both be fearful and grateful for when your life might be in danger.
Maybe it was stupid to confide with her a little… but she was also in fear that whatever might try to kill me might also be after her. I didn’t trust her with my life… but I did trust in the fact she also wanted to survive this night.
I thought out what to say for a moment “Best case? Nobody.” She snorted not believing it herself “Most likely… thugs, guns, and non-human entities.”
She nearly chuckled “Guns? You are worried about guns?”
I hissed in frustration as what exactly made these people think that guns were dangerous?
It made me throw up my arms and practically shout “Yes! Guns! The mass produced innovation of humanity that is quite skilled at killing people from far! It's why the art of swords and shields died when the industrial revolution rolled in.”
Oh yes swords could be scary and there might be a few magical tricks that could make them scarier… but there were plenty of mundane methods that were far cheaper and far more effective at killing you.
“Never underestimate the power of a fully automated machine gun or a rocket launcher.” I informed the young woman to her surprise “And that is if they don’t decide to send a speeding vehicle full of explosives crashing into the doors like a battering ram.”
That was my main worry and fear. Even if I somehow drew a dozen ‘Anti-bullet shields’ upon each table that still left explosives to deal with it or use good old kinetic force. I was under no illusion that they wouldn’t pull out the bigger toys after seeing a magical barrier somehow stop a speeding vehicle set to ‘road kill’ speed..
“So… non-human entities.” Cosplay Witch spoke a little bit curious about the term “Are you expecting Fae, Werewolves… what exactly?”
“Things trying to claw my face off while being able to rip car doors off with ease.” I informed her as she looked surprised at that statement. “Not exactly something you’d want to try getting into melee with.”
Davin loved his alchemical abominations that would give Frankenstien a run for his money if he didn’t try suing the mad scientist/magician. Trica preferred gangs, guns, and sucide monsters. Anything big and nasty enough to wreck things up before her crews rolled in behind to mob up the survivors. Sha’dar… well that was Nyte’s favored attack dog as Akara lacked the resources to send that crazed monster to try hunting me down.
I was still too ‘unimportant’ for Nyte to waste unnecessary resources to settle Akara’s little grudge with me so that was a plus. If I had to place my bet on which of the three would be sent after me then my money was on Trica.
Her groups didn’t rely too heavily upon the resources located within Kornea and if we were playing by Masquerade rules… then her group would be the easiest to hide or discount as ‘normal criminals’ so long as they kept the magic (and explosions) to a minimum.
Just ‘mundane enough’ to probably slip by unnoticed by the magical folk until they pulled out automatic weapons with whatever disposable monsters they flung at me.
I heard somebody snapping their fingers as it broke me from my paranoid thoughts as the young woman stared at me as she was apparently surprised that I had worked up a nervous sweat for who was probably going to try and kill me tonight.
She chuckled nervously “Okay what exactly did you do to get these people mad at you?”
I took a deep breath and tried my best to whisper “I sort of… bushed one of their higher ups out the window of a skyscraper. He died when he hit the ground but the Reanamators put him back together.”
Now she was staring at me in disbelief “Wait… full blown necromantic resurrection?”
That earned a nervous chuckle from me “Oh no frankenstein resurrection. Those non-human entities share more in common with HP Lovecraft’s Mi-Go. They could have simply popped out his brain and stuck it into an entirely new body they built if they wanted to.”
Her face turned pale as that was what their health insurance would cover… then it only took a cynical mind to question what their weapons department could throw at you. After all humanity alway had the funny habit of finding better ways to circumvent everyone’s protection.
“And they use guns… when they have that at their disposal?’ She asked before I shot her a hard look “Okay stupid question… I mean sending in wave after wave of disposable human minions who don’t care about being cut up after seeing someone get put back together after that is pretty good motivation.”
Somehow she was getting the right answer if only for the wrong conclusion, but I didn’t bother correcting her. Far easier to expect the worse than try and correct her.
“So… what does everyone else think is going to kill me?” I asked in morbid curiosity “As my hit squad was already trying to me before today while The Stitch…”
“Don’t say her name!” The cosplay witch hissed in fear “Not even… that.”
She glanced around in fear as I shook my head “Other ‘people’ seem to think that something else is going to try and kill me… even then… if everybody hated Agatha Willow then why didn’t somebody shoot her or just plant some explosives in her house and blow her up?”
That earned me an odd look of confusion as I shrugged “Magical Mafia is trying to hunt me down. If a building doesn’t catch on fire or blow up tonight then I’ll be surprised.” I held up my hand “Also if nobody is alive to tell what happened then technically nobody can complain about their methods.”
Now there was the unsettling look of unease I had been expecting as maybe the people trying to kill me would play by Hidden Magical World Masquerade rules… or maybe they would do whatever they wanted and left before the ‘magical authorities’ could step up and call foul.
After a few seconds the woman sighed “Okay… how does… your… Pact thingy… work?”
She seemed to be struggling to suggest something, but also there was that all to familiar knowledge that I got when I was about to do something stupid.
I couldn’t help, but smirk “Spirit of the agreement. Not the letter of the argument. Non-human entities don’t understand or simply do not care about legal wordplay or loophole nonsense.”
Holding out my hand I decided to guess what she wanted from me “I promise not to kill or betray you tonight so long as you do not try killing me or betraying me.”
She stared at it for a good couple of seconds as it really did seem strange for how seemingly simple it was to make a Pact. No fancy contracts, magical blood bindings, or anything really… just the faint tingle and pressure in the air with the unsettling knowledge that something was watching you where you couldn’t see it.
She carefully held out her hand not fully trusting herself to shake as she replied “I… I promise to do the same. So long as you also agree to tell me about all of… this after tonight… alright?”
“All of this?” I asked trying to get clarification “Because I’m going to ask the same. So do you want to know about Magic? The people trying to kill me? The Spire or…”
“All of it or… mostly the bits that won’t make sense tonight.” She sort of asked as she was unsure of what to say or how far she wanted to push her luck or the Pact “Just… don’t stab me in the back, betray me, or… you know.”
We both shook hands before she suddenly pulled her hand back as if my hand was a viper as she hissed “What are you!”
“Human.” I spoke with a hint of annoyance. “I’d show you my ID if someone hadn’t stolen them.”
She stared at me oddly for a few seconds “I get that sort of feedback from elves and spirits. Not ‘humans’ muchless…” She stared at her hand for a few seconds before shivering. “Seriously I almost expected that…”
The woman tried to cut herself off, but I simply drummed my fingers against the nearby table and said “I already know the ‘bodyguards’ are trying to kill me.” She stared at me in mild disbelief “They weren’t exactly quiet about it either.”
Now she flinched “To be fair… Agatha Willow is… she has died multiple times.” I nodded my head as she rubbed the back of her head “She… she kind of does a ‘reincarnation’ through her daughters.”
Now I felt a little bit of unease as it was pretty clear that everyone wanted her dead. The fact that the bodyguards kind of made it obvious that their job was to keep me here instead of trying to protect me.
“I mean…” She shook her head “Five daughters. Four face the Trial. The fifth essentially gets Agatha Willow’s memories. The ‘Curse of the Hill’ to incentivise people to… try other means of subduing them.”
“How bad?” I asked feeling a hint of dread “And just to be clear… erasing all of my memories and replacing them with a dead old lady is still murder mind you.”
Now she sighed in relief as I’m guessing she was worried that I might have tried doing the same to her “ Agatha Willow can ‘reincarnate’ through one of her daughters if they take up the pact… don’t ask. I don’t know what it is, but Agatha Willow is really known for her habit of betraying people.”
Now I banged my head against one of the plastic tables as I certainly didn’t want to know how or why anyone would think it was a good idea too… oh right… crazy fae logic magic rules.
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Probably some deal that sounds good on paper right up until you find out that small ink dot was actually an entire damn essay in microscope print that had you giving up your own soul… or those ‘terms and conditions’ pages that were so stupidly long it would take hours just to read it all.
Best case your entire memory was drowned out by a few centuries of new memories… Worst case they were simply replaced, killing ‘you’ and inserting an entirely new person.
Yet the only thing that escaped my lips was one word “No offense… but why would anyone help her if everyone wants to kill her?”
The cosplay witch looked very uneasy as she slowly replied “Because on this night she makes… rather… unique incentives for doing so.” She gripped her staff tighter “So if you are not… ‘you’ in the morning… don’t be offended if I try to kill you.”
I almost asked ‘If that’s the case then why hasn’t she done that to her daughters before today…’ and then I remembered how everyone was already planning on killing me on the brief chance I was a ‘heir of the hill’ as… apparently the council already had the same question and just decided to play it safe.
“So either it's more complicated than I’ve been led to believe or the crazy witch from the house ran off leaving me behind as a distraction” I thought to myself while remembering the other four girls “With three spare dummies to toss at anyone who chases after her.”
A bit more cynical, but I could believe her simply tossing a fake corpse while making herself younger and pretending to ‘die’ before pretending she had some sort of mystical reincarnation ability. It keeps all of the mystical flare while making everyone fear that even if you killed her she would rise back from the grave to kill you back.
So long as she had children.
Which she obviously didn’t have this time since the entire city seemed to make it a point to not take any offers she was making… which was both impressive and slightly worrying at the same time.
“So Kravos.” The cosplay witch asked.
“That’s not my name…” I muttered in mild annoyance “And if you keep calling me that I’ll just call you Cosplay Witch.”
She frowned before taking a deep breath as she seemed a bit more relaxed now that it was obvious that I wasn’t going to break the Second Law… okay this wasn’t The Spire so technically they didn’t exist here.
“My name is Nadel Kazult.” She spoke the last name with intent waiting to see if it sparked a reaction “Can you tell me your ‘name’ or tell me why you won’t tell me?”
I bit my lip “You can call me… Dais.” I motioned to my revolver “Not my real name. Just don’t want them to search my real name in police data banks. Things tend to get messy when your rivals know who your family members are to threaten.”
She didn’t know if I was talking about the people trying to kill me or the bodyguards who were pretending like they weren’t planning my death. Once I ran away from this city I didn’t plan on giving them a name to look up in the phone books or whatever government databases they had access to.
The young woman pinched her nose “Kravos is a proper Magi name. I’m going with that.”
Now I rolled my eyes as that name sounded exactly like the type of name you would give to an evil sorcerer who was going to summon demons or something. Dais might sound a bit stupid, but it didn’t ring ‘shoot him in the head’ to anyone who hears it.
“And what exactly is your plan for that exactly?” She asked glancing at the singled out table full of fancy mystical runes and markings made from a good old fashion permanent marker.
“My ticket out of here.” I told her honestly “Something big and ‘magical enough’ to make people not ask twice why I’m carrying it around when I walk out that door.”
Now she stared at me as if I was an idiot as sure it sounded insane saying it outloud… but so did a lot of magic tricks when you explained how they worked. The real trick was applying smoke, mirrors, and a general helping of bold face lies.
She held out her arm and seemed to whisper something in pseudo latin probably trying to look a lot more mystical than what she really was doing as none of the ‘charms’ on her wrist glowed or reacted.
“I don’t detect any magic…” Nadal spoke as she pointed her staff at me “But is there anything you want to tell me just to be safe?”
It was probably stupid, but I probably should warn her just to be safe “You may also want to ware a mask… something to filter out smoke just incase.”
“I’ve got a charm for that.” She muttered.
“Don’t shoot the messenger…” I warned her glancing at the bodyguards “Though you might want to write it down if your head feels light or if you can’t think straight… Kornea has a lot of unique chemical weapons.”
----------------------------------------
The time slowly ran down as once again it was another game of twenty twenty questions. Only this time I was getting somewhere. The only problem was that the sun was disappearing as I heard the sound of a cell phone ringing as something large was moving outside of the warehouse.
I checked my backpack sure that it was someone sent by Akara, but none of the pendants had lit up. So either it was someone I didn’t get a tracking/alarm charm on… or this was one of the ‘native threats’ of this crazy city that wanted to kill me.
The knight and driver pulled out their swords as Nadel stood off to the side as the two ‘bodyguards’ wanted to talk to her out of ear shot of me… which they really sucked at since it was them warning her and then telling her not to tell me anything.
There was the sound of something pressing up against the doors meant for trucks to pass through as a rather robust voice spoke out “Where is the heir of the hill?”
Have you ever heard the difference between a large dog bark and a small dog? The difference of the pitch of tone and roughness of the voice. This had the same quality to it except it was much bigger than a human in that sense.
Nadal glanced at me as I simply shrugged since this was one of their problems before I pulled out my mask and goggles. Just a few minor enhancements and modifications had been made to both of them.
The small face mask had been modified so it would filter out more dangerous chemicals while also allowing me to breathe easier. The goggles/shades were to help deal with any unwanted mist blocking my vision and from fogging up.
The knight pulled out his sword “Try searching outside of the city.”
There was the sound of metal grinding against metal as… the sound of either the metal chains breaking or whatever the metal chains had been attached to broke as they fell to the ground. A large paw forced itself underneath the door trying to slowly push it up.
I pulled out the bag of ‘Forgotten Mist’ and poured it into the first waste basket by my wall of plastic tables. The white powder poured inside it before I pulled out my trusty ‘wand’ as half of a magician’s tricks were smoke and mirrors.
With a press of the button the night stick expanded before I twisted the bottom a little and held the button. A burst of flames erupted from the tip of the stick as the prior ‘runes’ for a better lack of a word activated. The powder turned into a fine fog… more like a fog machine as it sort of hung in the air, but didn’t hamper too much of your vision.
The rest of the array activated, keeping the mist inside my zoned off area as the door was pushed all the way open revealing… a large wolf.
As far as exciting things that were trying to kill me this one was a let down. I mean yes it was freakishly as large as a car, but that was about it. Just a large gray fox with bits of twigs, dirt, and leaves caught up in its mane that made me think it rolled around in a pile of leaves rather than… some mighty fierce hunter.
The wolf sniffed the air trying to catch my scent before the mist interfered with its ability “here is the… the…” The wolf rubbed his nose like a cat trying to force a bad smell out of their nose “The Heir… I know you have one here. You are hiding… Hiding her.”
Now I let out a sigh of relief as already it was kicking in. The creature forgot that it was looking for a male heir so as long as I stayed within my little ‘room’ then it literally couldn’t find me only because it couldn’t remember me.
The wolf glanced around the room reminding me more of a drunk who was trying to remember what they came here for… and the bodyguards swayed a little glancing around the room faintly remembering they were supposed to be guarding someone, but couldn’t exactly focus on my corner of the room.
I mean they could see it… but it was more like they weren’t paying attention to it or didn’t find the need to pay attention to it. Sure this trick had a lot of flaws, but it was moments like these as I loaded my revolver that made it all worth it.
“We do not!” The knight spoke leaning on his sword a little “The foul witch had used the last of her pacts to hide her daughters from us before having them flee the city after the night she died!”
The Wolf shook his head “You’re… your lying… but not lying.” The mutt continued rubbing his face against the door trying to mark it… or the mist was making him feel ill.
‘Is it sentient or wild?’ I asked myself in the back of my head.
If it was just a magically compelled or modified wild animal… then I could kill it and nobody would care. Sure it might draw some attention, but by that point I could escape. The real problem was if it was sentient…
People tended to care a lot more when people were shot instead of expensive, but ultimately replaceable drones/puppets. You could make excuses to why the latter failed, but people took notice when people died… and usually did so guns blazing.
“We are trying to kill the heirs!” The knight shouted “If we had one then we would have had them sign the death pact!”
That would have been mildly disturbing if not for the fact that it had already failed. Pulling up a chair I decided to simply watch the show and see if my ‘bodyguards’ would drop any more details about things I wasn’t supposed to know.
The wolf growled “Your… lying… but you are not. You… you think you aren’t lying. Where… where is she!”
I heard a female gasp as I stared at Nadel as she now looked at me in fear… and then noticed that the big bad wolf was staring at her.
No. No, no, no…
I pulled out my red cloak as I reached the edge of the mist and shouted “Hey big bad wolf!” It turned towards me as if half remembering me “Catch!”
I tossed another bag of ‘Forgotten Mist’ onto the floor before unleashing another burst from my fake wand. The burst of heat turned the powder into a fine mist as the wolf moved towards me… before sneezing.
I had mixed a few ‘less than savory things’ into that batch that had a crude ‘sneezing powder’ which wasn’t too useful in keeping the mist around… but it was useful in ensuring that the victim kept inhaling before each powerful sneeze.
The wolf grunted as Nadel was painting heavily as I backed away from the edge of my barrier. She stared at me in disbelief as one of her bracelet charms were glowing… which was both surprising and mildly concerning.
“How is she breathing without being affected by the mist” I couldn’t help, but ask in the back of my mind “She isn’t even wearing a mask. Heck that blue glow would be suicidal if not for this mist making people forget things.”
“Where… where is the female?”
I turned around and felt the tension in my body drain as it came from the wolf who had thankfully forgotten that Nadel had been inside the room. She just kept staring at the scene in disbelief as before writing on a notepad ‘Answers in the Morning’ and pointing it at me.
Apparently she was too nervous to talk in fear that someone might hear her.
The Knight on the other hand was still clueless as his helmet was just as worthless “Do you see any females? If so then take them! Take my words as the truth ancient hunter as Agatha Willow tricked you!”
“Endless Night…” She swore underneath her breath “This is how Agatha Willow hid her daughters!”
“No. This is just ‘smoke and mirrors’ little soul.” I couldn’t help, but whisper in a smug tone “Just common tricks of the trade for any Magician.”
Now she stared at me in wide eye disbelief as the term was unfamiliar to her… but the effects of my little magic show was clear for all (who could remember) to see. Now the real trick was trying to escape.
“Just to be clear…” I glanced at Nadal “The giant talking wolf is sentient.”
I swapped out only two of the more lethal rounds with some powdered ones as I ignored the conversation between the group planning my death and the group who wanted something equally bad for me.
Nadal cleared her throat with a hint of unease “I mean it is… why? Does that matter?”
Loading a small batch of ‘Despair Root’ I checked my watch seeing how much time we had “Because I don’t like leaving bodies unless I can help it.”
An uneasy feeling ran down my spine as I wanted to simply sit here and let the timer run out. If dealing with an easily tricked wolf was the worst thing I had to deal with tonight then this would be an easy night… yet my luck never panned out that well.
If I ran too fast I would be caught. If I didn’t run then eventually something or someone would catch onto the trick. So I just had to sit and wait while pretending to be a heck of a lot more confident in my plan than I really was.
The wolf started to sniff the air as the Knight in armor shouted “If Alaeros seeks to remake his daughter he will have to look outside the city as the craven witches fled!”
“Remake his daughter?” I asked as that sounded a bit off.
Nadal looked at me with a hint of fear as I waved my pistol to remind her that keeping secrets from me right now was not the best plan. Call me paranoid, but those words felt like they were key important details right now.
The young witch bit her front lip before shaking her head “Four things can happen tonight. A Heir of the Hill Survives, They die, They take a pact with Agatha and lose themselves to her memories… or…” She paused clearly uneasy by the final point “They ‘rewrite’ them.”
“Rewrite?” I asked as that sounded rather worrying. “Could you clarify that little detail?”
Nadal glanced at the wolf in fear “They take a Heir on this ‘wretched night’ and use the old pact… the insurance clause to ensure that at least one of the heirs survive. The cost of course being that the one who captures them can… rewrite their history.”
I ran a hand through my hair as that wretched sinking feeling sank into my gut as this really sounded like an entire city actually breaking the Second Law. Not just altering one’s mind without consent or removing one’s free will, but something much worse.
“Rewrite their history?” I asked trying to think of what that exactly meant “You mean like rewriting their memories or…”
“Their history.” Nadal emphasised nearly snapping at me from seeming to trivialize it “Everyone within the city gets their memories and history altered. They all think that it is real. Entire records change over night. You could get a book worm and rewrite their history saying they were a jock and you would even get years old engravings on a tree literally appear overnight!”
A large part of my mind refused to believe at the sheer absurdity of such a claim. That it literally couldn’t be possible as even with Kornea that stuff was… well the closest anyone got was a bounty of their heads by the local government, guilds, or anyone with a lick of common sense and money to dangle in front of bounty hunters.
If something like this was real… salt and ash… I didn’t even want to think about what anyone from The Spire would do if it was half as bad as what the young witch was even suggesting!
Nadal looked a little bit easier seeing how unnerved I was as she continued “For some they think that they can get the perfect… daughter, puppet, girlfriend or slave. So long as the bloodline continues…”
She let the words drift out as I could easily see how tempting it would be for a lot of less than moral groups to take that as an option rather than simply killing whoever they were chasing after. It was that sick twisted logic that made the second law of Kornea one that was worthy of launching things akin to holy crusades.
Yet for every nightmare… there was a twisted hope born out of desperation.
“And Alaeros lost his daughter and now sees this as a chance to… ‘revive her’ so to speak.” I spoke the words knowing how desperate some people could be at trying to ‘correct the injustice’ that life had inflicted upon them “That a father sees this as his chance to save his daughter instead of letting her be dead.”
Rewriting someone’s memory would be awful… but rewriting history? That was the type of thing that made people throw away their morality because if they rewrote history… then their ‘crime’ would also be erased as it simply never happened.
The perfect excuse to unleash every horrible thought locked away in the back of their mind as they wouldn’t even care if they were rewritten in the process. For some it might even be a happy bonus since they wouldn’t even have to remember the crimes they committed thus ‘absolving them’ of the crimes!
Nadal nodded her head “Every elf is trying to find an heir for their king… especially with how deep Agatha Willow’s curse and hurt their king killing both his beloved and his… daughter. He had a grudge to burn even if this isn’t a chance to bring back his daughter.”
Oh great… half blind revenge since he couldn’t harm the witch as he just plans to kill her heirs… the other half twisted hope in trying to bring back his dead daughter. So that pretty much blew ‘negotiations’ since I highly doubted he would bargain...
Well unless one of the other girls had failed to escape allowing him to capture one of them.
“What about the death pact thing?” I asked trying to get all possible options on the table “I mean it broke because it was used on me… would that still kick in if I was… rewritten?”
If we were playing by normal rules then no… because burnt books and magical contracts do not ‘magically repair themselves’ if they get destroyed. Though if things were playing by a different rule book then this might give me a card to play.
Not a great card, but a card nonetheless.
Nadal stared at me for a few seconds before looking uneasy again “He… he may owe you a favor if only to ensure that his daughter will not die after tonight… so long as he has ‘reclaimed his daughter’ before he meets you again.”
“Ah… he’ll kill me if he hasn’t, but he will let me live if he has.” I chuckled bitterly at the thought “And with my luck they are on a plane to Hawaii right now.”
A hint of paranoia flared as I glanced at Nadal “Just out of curiosity… why aren’t you interested in cashing me in? Rewriting my history just to ensure that nobody else tries to murder you or something?”
Nadal chuckled nervously “Its… well…” She looked around before whispering “The Stitch Witch wants you alive.”
She looked around again in fear as if simply speaking the name would summon her presence. I might have called it foolish, but I remembered Cruse of Strahd or ‘Taboo Names’ for short. The type of things that when spoken that allowed certain supernatural baddies to know you spoke the name.
Maybe Stitch Witch was one of those words… or the thing you said in place of them.
“I take it, she'd remember then.” I spoke in a deadpan tone.
The young witch rubbed her neck “The only thing that could oppose her was Agatha Willow… and even then she was the monster you ran to when trying to hide from her.”
I nodded my head as that both stated that there were limits to this ‘rewrite curse’ they all believed in… or that the eldritch witch lived up to the eldritch bit which made her all the more horrifying. Seriously some of those things could twist their hand and give any would be ‘god’ a run for their money.
She looked me up and down for a moment “You're also a guy…”
That made me roll my eyes as she sort of blushed for a moment before shaking her head.
“No not that…” She groaned “I mean that you survived or stopped Agatha Willow’s curse to make daughters. A Witch of the Hill with that much power?” She chuckled nervously “That is like shaking someone’s head and accepting a death pact only to watch the other person die instead.”
“Ah…” The word was left hanging in my mouth as I wasn’t exactly sure how to reply to that.
I mean yes it technically happened, but… I guess to her it was like watching superman get shot in the face without even blinking. That sort of feeling... that you were so far out of depth it wasn’t even funny.
I glanced back at the room as more and more people started flooding into the room. Werewolves, people in black flowing robes, thugs with guns, Civil war reenactors, more colorful armor medieval knights, and the rest of the cast rejects from the fantasy book series.
More kept flooding into the warehouse demanding to know where the heir of the hill was. The two body guards kept telling them there wasn’t one. The odd feeling that they should be remembering something, but couldn’t place their finger on what it was.
Not a single mask to filter out the mist among them.
I searched my bags before pulling out a bag of ‘despair root’ as it would be a jerk move to set this off leaving everyone in a stupified state of terror… but I’d only do that if I was caught. Until then it was time for the crazy stupid plan.
Picking up the table I motioned to Nadal “Okay now for my great and wonderful magic trick.”
She walked over to the other side staring at the mist around us and at the table wondering if there was some sort of hidden magic rune or perhaps some unique item I kept hidden to pull off some grand feat of magic she was surely planning on stealing or asking me about after tonight.
There were no grand feats of magic or mysticism right now.
Just pure Grade C nonsense.
Carrying the table out of my little zoned off area the first person stared at me “Who… Who are you?”
I smiled even if he couldn’t seem my face behind my mask and spoke in the most absurd attempt of a bad scottish accient “I am leżenie. These are the great runes of Lio-vor made by the great kelts of old laddy! I was going to slap that heir upon this table, but somebody gave me the wrong address.”
I huffed in fake announce as they left me alone leaving me to stumble on forward trying to avoid the crowd of ‘slightly intoxicated’ group of people who wanted to kill me.
A knight in black armor stood in front of me holding up a finger “Who… Where did you…”
“If you make a crack about me going by the batmobile then by the grace of transylvania I shall shove a stake through your heart for that awful joke.” I snapped in the worst transylvanian accent I could come up with “This is obviously a highly elaborate ritual table which I was going to place this heir of the hill upon.”
I held up my ‘revolver’ and showed it to him “And then gave him a good poke. Let that blood flow. Not wait for every peasant and umbilical to stumble about making ‘dracula jokes’ at my displeasure.”
With a fake uppity ‘hah’ I strood past him as I continued the game making just as many absurd claims to who I was while pointing at the nonsensical runes I had drawn upon the table until we were finally outside.
The amount of ‘Mist’ that had practically been stained into my clothing still clung to our bodies leaving a trail of mist behind us. Nadal simply chuckled at the sheer absurdity of it all as we both continued walking around to where the police car had been parked.
“Seriously… What was that?” She asked in utter disbelief “I mean… what was that?”
I fished out the best magical gadget I had in my pocket and placed the small flat piece of metal against the car door lock “Minor forgetfulness. Short term memory loss and problem. Get drenched in enough of it and people have a hard time trying to separate you from any of the other people at the scene.”
The door unlocked as I got into the driver’s seat while Nadal slipped into the passenger side “They have a hard time focusing or remembering you. Just pretend you are supposed to be there and let their mind fill in the gaps… or do something so outlandish that their mind hastily tries to fill in what they think you look or sound like.”
I turned on the car and started driving out of the warehouse district as everyone was looking for a female heir and I could probably drive away finding someplace safe to hide while everyone idiot rushed to the warehouse area trying to find (and forget) me.
Of course how to make people forget you even after you left was the real trick… but I didn’t bother telling her how that trick worked. A magician after all never reveals all of his secrets.
Driving out of the area I let out a small sigh of relief “So any idea where you want to hide for the night?”
“Hide?” Nadal asked in mild confusion
I nodded my head as I spared a glance at the pendants against my backpack “That trick worked against them because they had no idea what to expect. The people hunting for me will bring gas masks or simply burn the area down to find me.”
I kept an eye out for any odd vans or large vehicles “And your council will not interfere until morning… so I’d like to find someplace safe until then.”
The young witch opened her mouth to say some witty retort only for one of my pendants to glow and point straight up… literally straight up in full gravity defying action.
I could hear the gulp as the large uneasy feeling of worry and the naive hope that what I feared certainly wasn’t happening… that there was a perfectly logical explanation for why the pendant was pointing directly up above us.
“Uh… Nadal?” I asked as my lips felt dry “How… How far does this magical barrier thing extend?”
The young witch stared at me and then at the pendant “It may have weakened a little upon this night, but… so long as any living threat…”
“Living threat?” I hissed out in dread realization “Does that include dead or temporally dead?”
The pendant thankfully (or worryingly) started to point behind us as we didn’t so much hear, but felt the earth shattering crash as a red light appeared before us on the road.
Nadal looked behind as she spoke in dread horror “Please tell me why what looked like a dragon crashed into the warehouse district?”
The mechanical cybernetic roar of fury and hatred echoed behind us as when the light turned green I sped up the vehicle trying not to floor the gas pedal in fear that it might draw attention to me.
First sneak away. Then bolt at full speed when they catch you. Until then… sneak away and pray that everyone else trying to kill you slows them down.
“Funny thing about stealth Nadal.” I spoke trying to drive away quickly without drawing too much attention. “It technically works if nobody is left alive to report it.”
"What exactly happened?" The witch repeated because it needed to be repeated.
I glanced into the rear view mirror "Mistakes were made... mostly by your council."
She stared at me possiblying beliving the first part, but not the second...
Hey it wasn't my fault that they didn't listen to me... If they simply let me leave the city then they wouldn't have been caught by suprise by the giant undead cyborg dragon being operated by whatever crazy psychopath that had been sent to kill me.
That is the exact line I'd even tell them as we drove away from the burning maze of warehouses that they tried to hide me in.