The night goes slowly. Solomon is sure to check behind her back every now and then, not staying in one place for too long. She does as she was once told: “always walk as if you know exactly where you are going, don’t look lost.” Advice which she has taken to the heart. She is glad that at least the weather is merciful enough not to drench her. It takes her a while, but she finds a particularly friendly-looking alleyway where she settles down for the remainder of the night when she starts to feel tired. Awake and alert, but no longer on the run. Still very much alone with her thoughts, which she positively hates, she truly hopes that she can get the help she needs the next day.
The sun is coming up, the night is finally over. She hasn’t slept a bit, but that won’t stop her from going back. She has wandered quite far from her apartment, but she is still within walking distance to the station. She beelines towards it, certain that it’s open. She barges in to find that no one is inside. “But the door wasn’t locked?” She sees that someone has attempted to at least hide the marks of corrosion on the floor and wall with a carpet and a chair.
In the meeting hall, the main table is pushed aside to reveal a trapdoor. “Damnit, not again!” She feels less than excited about seeing another trapdoor, the thought that it was always there doesn’t make her feel any better, but she’s in desperate need of more answers and help. “Here goes nothing.”
She opens up the door to find a ladder. Sure, the station itself could use a new coat of paint, but down there, it’s even worse. Even from up there, she can tell that it’s a place that hasn’t been used for a while, whatever use it may have. Standing at the bottom by the ladder is, to her delight in a way, Adelar.
“You could have just called me, you know.” Says the eagle, looking pleased to see her. “So you came back?”
Solomon sighs and swiftly makes her way down. There is a very small room there with a door that leads to what she guesses is the rest of the basement. She can hear the crackling of electricity coming from beyond it.
“Hello to you as well, Adelar.” She retorts, causing Adelar to laugh.
“So, how come you came back?” He asks in a tone that comes off as overly condescending to Solomon.
“Listen, I need your help. There was trouble back at-” She tries to explain, only to be cut off by the eagle.
“Your apartment?” He asks, crossing his arms. “It’s already been taken care of.”
Solomon’s eyes widen in astonishment.
“The police were called, and lucky for you, I was called as well.” Adelar smiles proudly. “I knew you either had to be attacked, or you just went mad. Had the scene taken care of.”
Solomon shakes her head vigorously.
“How? How did you do that?” She demands.
“Well, there were no fingerprints to be found where you touched him. In fact, there wasn’t much left of those areas... We labelled it a burglary gone wrong. Officially: he climbed in through the window, tried to steal something that looked expensive, pried open a glass filled with a particularly potent acid and that ended up happening. Place is still actively being investigated, so I don’t recommend you go back there today.”
“You did all that… For me?” Solomon wonders why he would even go through such effort for her after leaving in the manner she did.
“Of course.” Adelar smiles. “You may not want to work with me, but I will still try to keep such magic a secret.”
Solomon puts her arms behind her back and sways.
“Well… About that.” She says, Adelar looks at her expectantly. “I might just need that training you mentioned. Since someone tried to kill me yesterday, I don’t feel safe at all.”
“So you are willing to work with me then?” The eagle nods.
“Yes.” She says without hesitation. “If that’s the price of my safety, then yes.”
“Welcome back, in that case.” Adelar claps once. “Come, meet the others. They’re figuring things out already.”
He opens the door, which leads to a rather large room, seemingly bigger than the station. This room is well-kept, clean, and has various dummies in it made out of different materials from metal to a gel-like substance. Close to the walls, benches are placed with many different tools and items on them. Solomon isn’t focusing on those, however, rather, her three colleagues.
“Knew you’d come back.” Lisa states matter-of-factly, looking happy to see her friend again.
“No you didn’t.” Yaroslav begins to say. “You even said you would go check if-”
“ANYWAY Solomon, welcome back!” Lisa cuts him off as Durazo bows slightly to greet her. Solomon smiles widely, downright ecstatic on the inside. So much has changed, yet nothing at all.
“So… What is this place, exactly?” She asks with a curious look.
“This is where you will receive your training. We should have all the tools we need here.” Adelar points to the benches by the wall on the other side of the room. “You should eventually discover how you can use your magic best. And just to make sure…” He holds out his hand. “Are you in now?”
Solomon doesn’t hesitate at all. She needs Adelar’s help, she wants to feel safe again.
“Of course I’m in.” She then takes off her gloves and shakes his hand.
Out of nowhere, she feels a sudden urge to activate her power, along with the faintest of anger deep within her. She lightly shakes her head and quickly snaps out of it. “Call of the void…”
“First questions.” Solomon takes a deep breath and puts her hands together. “Tell me, where did you learn all this about magic? Who worked for you before us?”
Adelar pulls on the collar of his suit, looking to the side for a moment.
“I learned most of what I know from other Mystic Ones.” He looks down at the floor and sighs. “Two Blazing Ones. All you need to know is that… Well, they didn’t last long.”
His response doesn’t exactly encourage Solomon regarding her position… But she’ll take what she can get.
“We’ll be better.” Lisa chimes in, looking just as terribly confident as the tone she used to say that. “Watch this!”
Solomon observes what the others can do. Much like she expected, Lisa’s touch will electrify whatever she uses her power on, mostly metals and conductive materials, a considerable shock at that, as far as she can tell.
“Feels like it’s the most I can do for now. But it’s still pretty wicked!” She states with excitement in her voice.
“Have you tried what happens when you electrify, let’s say a puddle?” Solomon suggests.
“We’ve got to try that.” Lisa likely wonders how come she didn’t think of that yet.
“Yaroslav’s ice interests me greatly.” Says Adelar. “It’s extraordinary! It rapidly seeps into any material, significantly lowering its structural integrity!”
Solomon hasn’t seen an eagle be so excited about ice before.
“Simple, if it’s frozen, it’s easier to break.” Yaroslav explains.
Solomon turns to Durazo, who shines his light onto her. Rather than the blinding, stinging light she was exposed to just the other day, this time it feels soothing.
“If only I could use this on the people that need it…” Durazo says in a sullen tone, looking at the eagle.
“Utmost secrecy. We do not want the public to know about it. Can you even imagine what the government would do to get their hands on any of these powers?” Adelar responds with authority in his voice. Solomon can tell that there’s no arguing with him about that matter.
“Speaking of…” Adelar continues. “I unfortunately still have to make this look like a legitimate business. When we get a call, someone has to respond.”
“Can’t we just hire some poor sod to do that while we do something actually important?” Lisa suggests.
“That would risk our secrets getting out. I have thought about that, but ultimately, it’s too risky.” Adelar turns to look at Solomon. “So let’s make the most of what time we have.”
“While we’re on the topic…” Solomon begins to say. “How’d you even find us? You couldn’t tell that we had markings just from the CV pictures.”
“You see…” Adelar smirks. “I happen to have some connections with some doctors. Namely in places such as the UK, France, Russia, Spain, as well as Italy and especially Germany.”
Solomon eyes him terribly suspiciously.
“...Why exactly do you have these connections?” She inquires, the others look just as curious to hear.
“Specifically for this, of course.” Adelar chuckles. “I was kind of important in my youth.” He states proudly, then quickly shakes his head. “But that’s not important now. Let’s get to work.”
Adelar’s explanation doesn’t put Solomon at ease at all, but she figures that it can’t be helped for now.
She stays there for a good few hours, mainly trying her power on different materials, which all invariably dissolve into a black puddle. However, there is one exception: glass. Adelar expresses his confusion about it, an acid this potent should have no problem dissolving glass. Then again, it is magic. Maybe that’s just how it works.
“Solomon? Everything alright?” The feline hears Adelar ask after the lengthy experimentation.
“Oh, yeah, I just… I didn't sleep all night. I think it’s catching up to me.” Solomon rubs her eyes, then quickly pulls her hands away, her mind racing about what effects her acidic hands would have on her body.
“Don’t worry.” Says Adelar, noticing her concerned look. “You’re an Acid One. You should be unaffected by your own magic.”
Solomon then gets a rather impulsive thought. Her spirals light up and she grasps her own wrist. Nothing. It’s as if she just put a wet hand on her wrist. The floor it’s dripping onto, however, certainly looks in a worse condition now.
“Sorry!” She says with an awkward smile, looking up from the burned spots on the floor to meet Adelar’s gaze. “I’m just so tired right now…”
“I need you to focus, Solomon. I need you in top condition. You can go and rest, it’s very apparent that you need to.” Adelar advises.
“No, no, I’m fine.” She once again dismisses his concerns. “Where would I even go? My apartment is currently a crime scene, remember?”
“I can take you to my place, you know.” Lisa speaks up. “You’re welcome there at any time.”
“Thanks, Lisa.” Solomon smiles at the wolf. “But I have to test a few things first.”
The tests in fact, take up the rest of the day. She figures out how to light up only one of her hands, which takes the most time to figure out. She tests how long her acid stays potent after leaving contact with her. To test that, she puts her hand in a glass container and lights up her marking. The container fills up more and more, staying green until she removes her hand from it.
She repeats the process, pouring the green liquid out onto a testing plate, careful not to get any on her dress. She may be immune to her acid, but she figures that it doesn’t apply to what she’s wearing. It always yields the same result: the acid doesn’t seem to lose potency as long as she is in contact with it, but quickly loses its effect soon after. It also doesn’t regain its potency if she touches the black liquid or if it mixes with her acid.
She makes numerous tests with the corrosive liquid, diligently repeating the same experiments to be absolutely certain that it always does the same.
“Solomon… Don’t you think it’s enough for now?” Aderlar gently shakes her to make her stop.
She looks back, frowning.
“Just a couple more tests, Adelar.” She yawns. “Then we can leave.”
“Solomon, look at yourself! You look…” He turns her around and looks her in the eyes.
“Quite frankly, you look terrible.” Lisa says with a worried expression.
Solomon goes to look at herself in a small mirror used for testing and gasps. Her eyes are bloodshot and have bags under them. She certainly looks rather dishevelled.
“Father, what’s the time?” She asks, not looking away. She hears no response from him, but she does hear a very uneasy Lisa respond.
“Solomon…” She says with amplified concern. “Father and Yaroslav already went home after some more training. You didn’t even notice?”
The feline snaps away from the mirror and towards Lisa, then looks around. The two are indeed gone.
“Wh-what’s the time?” She asks with a manic look.
“Seven in the evenin’, mate.” Lisa states after checking the time on her phone.
Solomon’s heart sinks. “That’s an hour after we normally close. It happened again? It can’t continue like this. It just can’t.”
“I’m taking you home, Solomon.” Lisa goes to take the cat’s hand, but grabs onto her wrist instead out of caution. “You need to rest. You seriously need to rest.”
Solomon just nods along and looks at Adelar, feeling extremely tired all of a sudden.
“Well… Thanks for the help. I’ll be… Seeing you.” She forces a smile, which ends up looking more creepy than reassuring.
“Of course, Solomon. Go now, rest.” Adelar nods in affirmation.
Solomon puts on her gloves and follows Lisa outside. They get into the car and go straight to the wolf’s place. During the trip, she actually feels like someone who hasn’t slept for almost two days. Maybe that’ll set her mind straight.
“So like…” Solomon begins to say, concerned for her mental and physical health. “What’d I look like from outside during all that?”
“You looked focused, like you were in some real deep thought.” Lisa explains, looking ahead. “We didn’t want to bother you, but it got too worrying at the end there.”
“That’s just great…” Solomon sighs regretfully.
After they arrive and enter Lisa’s house, Solomon feels rather calm, all things considered. There’s something oddly tranquil and comforting about the out of fashion rooms, furniture, and decorations.
“I don’t care what you say, I’m at least finding that spare mattress for you.” Lisa rushes upstairs.
“Hey Lisa…” Solomon says rather quietly, but loud enough for the wolf to hear it.
“Yeah?” She turns her head to look at the cat, halfway up the stairs.
“Mind if I use your shower?” Solomon asks sheepishly.
“‘Course not.” Lisa smiles, looking relieved. “Go ahead.”
Solomon takes her time in the shower. She almost feels rude for doing that, but it’s something she felt like she really needed. After all that testing with acid… Maybe it’s just the habit she picked up from her time as an apothecary. She would shower every day, it just made her feel better. This time however, the various expletives shouted by her host certainly make the whole experience feel different. She wonders what Lisa might be doing.
Solomon eventually leaves the shower, dries herself and gets dressed. Exiting the bathroom, she sees Lisa carrying a mattress.
“Good timing there, where do you want me to put this?” Her expression turns from one of sheer annoyance at the mattress to a warm smile. The mattress looks clean and comfortable, two things she could certainly use.
“You can just leave it here, if it’s not in the way too much.” Solomon yawns, tired, but grateful.
Lisa nods and puts down the mattress in between the wall and the railing of the first floor, close to the door to Lisa’s room and the bathroom. It definitely looks like it’s in the way, but she doesn’t seem to mind. The wolf takes a bedsheet, a pillow, and a comforter and quickly sets up a rudimentary bed for the cat.
“I’d say that’s good enough. Nothing fancy, but it works, yeah?” Lisa stands up, crossing her arms as she looks from the mattress to her guest.
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Solomon merely nods in response, happy to have a place where she can sleep safely.
“Right then. Sleep well.” Lisa smiles at Solomon one more time before going to her room as the feline lies down.
She falls asleep practically the instant she closes her eyes.
In her dream, she takes a good look around. Already something she’s not used to while dreaming. The setting is the same, a lifeless desert with the ruined remnants of what once was. She can really take in her surroundings now, wherever she looks, there is a strict lack of life. She notices that she can even see herself now, although she looks very different. Her entire body resembles no more than a shadow, save for her markings. “Even in her dreams, I can’t get rid of them?” She then realises, she looks just like…
The figure. She can hear the sound of feet stomping the sand. Looking up from herself, she sees it in the distance, and it is rapidly approaching in a sprint.
Horrified, she turns around to run. She runs, runs, and runs in the seemingly endlessly stretching desert landscape for what feels like hours, feeling ever relieved that in her dreams, she doesn’t get tired. But this… She can’t wrap her head around why it changed so drastically.
The figure hasn’t caught up to her, but that may change very fast if she stops. During her fleeing, she sees the remains of what once was a city on the horizon, a true metropolis with massive buildings, as dead and derelict as everything else, however. Hoping that it might just be a place where she can hide, she makes her way there.
In the city, she can immediately tell: no one has lived in what remains of the buildings for decades, or even centuries, many have crumbled and given in to the all-consuming force that is time.
She goes to hide in an alleyway, finally stopping to think. At least she would, if it wasn’t for the sound of ever-approaching footsteps.
Solomon goes to the edge of the alleyway and peeks her head out to take a look… Only to see the figure right in front of her. For just a second, she gets one close look at it. Its body is the very definition of dark, not a shred of light is reflected off of it, save for its eyes. She has no time to inspect it, however, as it reaches out its hand to grab her.
Filled with terror, and fear for her life, she jolts awake and screams.
Panting, she touches her chest and can feel her heart beat so rapidly, it feels like it just might jump out.
She then looks at her hands, sure enough, the spirals are still there, their end still wrapped around her wrists. She has but one question about the experience: why?
From out the door behind her comes Lisa, looking like she’s ready to beat up or electrocute whoever caused Solomon to scream like that, only to see that there’s no one else in the house other than them.
“What happened?” Lisa asks, now deeply concerned.
“Lisa…” The cat shakes her head. “This will sound weird, but… Have you been having weird dreams since your power’s, well, awakening?” She turns to face her, guessing that she doesn’t look any better than she did when she went to sleep.
“No?” Lisa raises an eyebrow.
Solomon explains her dreams to her, including the latest one. Her friend listens intently, interested and worried for her.
“I see.” Lisa finally says. “Sounds pretty fucked up if ya ask me.”
Solomon rolls her eyes.
“So, you haven’t had anything like this?” She asks, hoping that Lisa, for some reason, might have an answer that can help her.
“No. Nothing like this, nothing even similar to this.” Lisa crouches down next to Solomon. ”It’s not often that I remember my dreams, but those that I do, sure ain’t like this.”
“Why? Why is this happening?” Solomon says to no one in particular wishing for answers.
“I’d say go see an expert, but I’m not sure how much that would help.” Lisa puts a hand on her shoulder. “In any case, you can talk to me about it if it makes you feel better.”
The two spend a few more minutes talking, mostly about things that help sleep better. Various teas, dreamcatchers, even medicine, which Solomon would rather not have to take. At least she feels calmed enough to try and go back to sleep, hoping, praying that her dreams don’t change for the worse.
“You need anything, let me know.” Lisa goes back to her room, giving Solomon a reassuring smile.
Still tired, Solomon goes back to sleep.
She is in the city again. The same, dead city she was in last time, the one where the figure almost touched her. She would rather not think about what might even happen if it manages to do that.
She looks around frantically, but sees no figure. She goes inside one of the buildings and up the stairs hoping that up there, she’ll be safe…
A long while passes without anything happening to her. She looked out the nearby window for the figure, but didn’t see it even once. She huddles in a corner, feeling somewhat relieved. “What I’d give to have normal dreams again…”
The feeling doesn’t last long, however, as she starts to hear the sound of footsteps from the bottom of the stairs.
Panicked, she wastes no time, gets up, and goes up to the top of the building, the echoes of footsteps piercing the otherwise complete silence.
On the roof, she goes to the edge and waits, wondering what she can do to stop the thing that follows her.
The time between each footstep feels like an eternity, even those sounds are unnatural, something is just… Wrong with them. Solomon can’t quite put a finger on why, however. The best way to describe the sound of the footsteps is somewhere between someone barefoot and someone wearing wooden slippers a few sizes too big. Worse than that, the ever so quiet drip, drip, drip of the liquid coming from the figure’s hands. A sound all too familiar to Solomon. At least there’s no sizzling after the dripping in her dream.
They grow louder and louder, culminating in her seeing those piercing green eyes coming up from the stairs. The dark figure looks, stares at her, straight into her soul as she looks back at it in abject horror. Slowly, it starts walking in her direction. Midway through, it reaches out with one hand towards her, and just then, Solomon makes the decision on a whim: she jumps.
Right before she hits the ground, she wakes up in a cold sweat. To her surprise, despite everything, she feels rested, like she outsmarted the thing, even if just this once.
She looks at the clock, which reads 5:00. She lies on the mattress, looking at the ceiling, thinking… It went from a recurring nightmare to running from the same figure in a dead world. Some say that dreams have meanings, what could this possibly mean, if anything? They have to be related to these markings, she just knows that they are. They appeared at the same time, and now that the markings are fully developed, her dreams have gotten much, much worse. She’ll have to figure it all out, one way or another.
One week has passed. Solomon doesn’t feel any closer to finding answers about why her powers appeared or her dreams. She even went to a so-called professional during that time and was told that she “doubts herself” and that “she thinks she’s not good enough” and that’s why she is having these dreams. She may get paid well, but that just felt like a waste of not only money, but time as well.
Unlike her colleagues, she learned nothing new about her power either. Lisa tested how her electricity works on wet surfaces, it turns out that as long as it’s wet, it can flow through, likely electrifying whoever’s standing in it.
Yaroslav figured out how to make the ice he creates smooth, rather than the typical, jagged freezing he can normally do. He’s not sure what use it’ll have just yet.
Durazo has been focusing on concentrating his light, thinking that maybe it’ll increase how fast it can heal wounds. It’s anyone’s guess, really.
Solomon’s dreams didn’t get better. Every night, the same, chased by the figure, albeit in a slightly different setting, depending on where she flees. Sometimes, she can hide from it for a good while, but it always finds her. Her dreams invariably end the same, the figure gets very close to touching her. That stunt she pulled didn’t end up helping her, in the dream, she came to lying on the street, the figure standing just above her. She didn’t even have the time to process what was happening. The dreams may not have a physical effect on her, but they are beginning to take a toll on her mentally. Every time, she feels less and less rested.
She tried soporifics, but they only make her fall asleep easier, not dream easier. She tried using a dreamcatcher, it had no effect whatsoever. During the week, she was free to return to her apartment, the investigation having been concluded. She didn’t do that for another two days, after that, though. She didn’t feel easy returning, but whoever was out to get her seems to have gotten just the scare needed not to attempt to murder her again.
What has really gotten under Solomon’s skin however, is people. Keeping up the front as a rather inelegant investigation company, she has really become tired of dealing with people’s comparatively petty problems. Why does it matter that you can hear the neighbour’s music ever so slightly one time? Isn’t it illegal to report your teenage son as missing only because he went to the shop after school rather than straight home? The nerve of some people…
She really wanted to figure something out about her power, like the others did. Something new, anything! But try as she might, it’s always the same. Her marking lights up, acid secretes. On an occasion when she was particularly annoyed by the lack of progress, she had a strange thought. She’s immune to the effects of the acid, but how much? She let her hand simmer in the liquid for minutes, no adverse effect was reported. Then she had the strangest idea: what could it taste like? She shot that down mere seconds after coming up with it. Sure, she’s immune, but some questions are better left unanswered.
In only a few days, they will go to the port, Solomon isn’t sure what to expect from it. Who exactly will be there? Either way, the time is fast approaching. It doesn’t help that Adelar’s anonymous informant hasn’t had new information yet either. She wouldn’t be surprised to hear about that person’s demise if they were found out.
Overall, Solomon has accepted her role in this company, for now. Feeling rather paranoid about strangers, she grew closer with her colleagues, especially with Lisa. She felt like she could truly count on her, even more than before, just having someone to complain and tell her feelings to felt exhilarating and wonderfully refreshing.
She decided: whatever it takes, she will have answers. To her power, to how they came to be, to everything, all in due time.
The day has finally come. Tonight, Solomon and her colleagues will be at the Port of Moore to at the very least observe, possibly intercept. She looked into the history of the port, which seems to be a perfectly ordinary, if unremarkable port for small, arriving ships. There’s just one thing off about it: it hasn’t been officially used for years.
Before the sun sets, they set out to scout the area.
Arriving, Solomon is surprised by the condition of the “port”. She herself wouldn’t even call it that, it’s just a rickety pier that goes out to the sea. No self-respecting, legally sanctioned organisation would stoop so low as to use a place like this for any business. The four stay a safe distance away from the pier, looking out for anyone or anything approaching. They are shielded by rocks and bushes from sight. The sun has set, no sign of activity. Solomon isn’t sure what she’ll do if this turns out to be a red herring.
“Hey, Father…” Solomon breaks the silence, albeit with a whisper.
“Yes?” Durazo responds politely.
“Do you think you could bless us?” The feline asks innocently, which seems to thoroughly entertain an otherwise bored-looking Lisa.
“Well…” The ex-priest says after a long moment of silence.
“Would that even count?” Yaroslav proposes. “Since you know… You’re not a priest anymore?”
“He’s still pretty holy if ya ask me.” Lisa shrugs with a smug grin.
“Seriously…” Durazo sighs, burying his face in his palm. “That’s not how any of that works, but I guess I’ll look into it another time.” He says with just a hint of offence in his voice.
“Sorry!” Solomon says shyly, checking on the pier. No movement, nothing.
“That reminds me…” Yaroslav says in a tone that Solomon is very familiar with: he’s going to tell a story. “The boys and I were once sent out to demolish an entire village’s worth of houses near Siberia.”
“Here we go again.” Lisa chuckles.
“Come on, Lisa, I know you love my stories.” The bear sits down by the large rock and begins recounting his experiences, all the while the others take turns looking out for anything at the pier.
“They were brand new houses, I tell you.” Yaroslav goes on. “It felt like a total waste of materials, that’s what was in the contract. And there was this one biiiig steel mill in the middle of the woods…” He spreads his arms for emphasis, Solomon gets the point: it was pretty big. “Those houses were all around it, close by. Some even looked lived-in, which was just weird.”
“Oooh, colour me intrigued!” Says Lisa, looking thoroughly interested.
“You would be, Lisa.”
“That place was weird too.” Yaroslav continues. “We got a few contracts for it as well, but they were all cancelled before it could be demolished.” He chuckles, the kind of chuckle that tells Solomon that he used to be pretty upset at the topic, but now it just makes for a story to tell. “Once, we were about halfway to the mill when we got a call from boss to come back.” He laughs heartily. “Oh, the boys and I were not happy!”
“Not to ruin the fun…” Durazo chimes in. “But keep it quiet.”
“Yeah, yeah.” The bear says in more of a whisper.
Solomon checks her phone, 22:12. They have been waiting for a good while.
“You know, Yaro, there’s one thing I can’t quite figure out.” Lisa begins to say, rubbing her chin, looking exaggeratedly deep in thought, glancing to the side. “How did you get reminded of that?” She looks at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, one of the contractors looked similar to Father.” He explains. “Except with black fur, not brown. Same face and all!”
“Brilliant.” Lisa smirks as Durazo makes a deep sigh.
“There!” Solomon gasps and gestures to the others to look, they all fall silent.
Walking towards the pier, a figure dressed in a white hooded robe, the hood obscuring their face. “Finally…” The figure stays there, standing by a tree.
A short while later, Solomon can see a small rowboat approaching. Three people are inside it, all looking to be in suits, but she can’t quite make out the faces. The hooded figure then goes to properly hide behind the tree, watching the boat as well.
Solomon waits, and waits for the boat to painstakingly get closer to the pier, but not quite close enough to dock.
Suddenly, the hooded figure steps out from behind the tree. Someone on the boat points at them, Solomon can hear them talk, but can’t make out what they are saying. It certainly sounds like a confrontation, however.
“Bask in HIS light!” Shouts a masculine voice coming from the hooded figure, who then throws something bright and shining at the boat.
One of the people on the boat jumps out into the water, another grabs a rectangular object in a burlap sack and throws it onto the pier. The third one watches in confusion as the object the figure threw lands in the boat, and erupts in an explosion. The boat is engulfed in flames, the other two are off, ablaze. The one that was blown up doesn’t surface, the one that threw the sack does, and is met with another glowing object, now thrown straight into their face. What remains is a headless body floating in the water.
“Fuckin’ hell!” Lisa remarks softly, taken aback.
The four watch the scene unfold: it’s worse than Solomon ever could have imagined. She can deal with her dreams to an extent, because that’s all they ever are, dreams. This however, is very real.
“This… May be above our pay grade. And that’s saying something.” She whispers to the others, she hears Durazo quietly recite a prayer.
The last person who was on the boat, and jumped off first, gets out of the water and makes a run for whatever’s in the burlap sack. He swiftly picks it up and turns to run from the hooded figure. Another glowing object lands close to him and explodes on impact. “What even are those?” The one carrying the sack loses his footing from the explosion and throws it far away from him and the fire. He then gets up and charges at the hooded figure, tearing at his robe.
His hood comes off, Solomon can now see the face of a black kite, which she can tell even from a distance. His robe is torn at the right arm, she spots something that makes her heart skip a beat: orange markings resembling fire. “Just like the ones on Adelar…” The kite claws at his assailant, eventually overpowering him. After a kick to the knee, the person in the suit falls to the ground. Solomon thinks, they have the chance to save this person, whoever he is, but she’s unsure if they should. “We could possibly get some information out of him!”
They have no time to act, however, the black kite takes a few steps back, he then lobs another glowing object right at the person on the ground. There is but a yelp that is heard before the flames consume him.
Solomon pants heavily at the sight, Durazo turns to calm her down.
“Whatever’s in that sack…” Lisa starts to speak. “We need to get it.”
The others look at her, perplexed.
“Did you even see what he did to those guys?” Yaroslav asks, a little louder than he likely means to.
“There’s four of us. Don’t you think we can take care of one birdie?”
Solomon doesn’t understand how Lisa can be so confident at a time like this.
“‘Ere’s what we do.” Lisa continues. “We get him to walk into that shallow area, I go there, I electrify it, and down he goes!” She explains as if that plan is even remotely simple to execute in practice.
“The blasphemous text…” Solomon hears the black kite talk. “Shall burn.” He says, readying in another object.
“And how do we get him to do that?” Solomon asks quickly.
“Shine your light, your holiness.” Lisa glances at Durazo.
The ex-priest looks reluctant, but they have no time to think about it too much. Durazo stands up, a light coming out from his palm. It blinds the black kite enough to make him miss his throw entirely, the shining object instead falling into the water where it no longer glows.
“Now what?” He turns to face Lisa.
“Now, you distract ‘em while I go down to the water.” Lisa then steps out from the cover of the bushes and the rocks, sneaking down. Solomon watches as the black kite readjusts himself and looks to the direction where the light came from. The things she does for the cause…
“Over here, connard!” She shouts and waves her hand, leaving the cover as well. Durazo ducks back down to the cover of the bushes.
The black kite looks at her, readies an object, and throws it into the bushes where she came from. She hears Durazo yell, then sees him and the bear leave the cover, Yaroslav in the process of putting out Durazo with his frost. “This was such a bad idea…”
“You. You use magic as well?” The black kite asks. “Yet you do not worship HIM… Blasphemers will burn by HIS will!” He shouts, and makes a throwing motion. Solomon can see many, small glowing objects, causing a small blast wherever they land. Their cover is now completely covered in flames. Quickly, the black kite prepares another and throws it at Solomon. Yaroslav comes from the side and catches it, cooling it off with his frost, surprised by what it is.
“A rock? That’s it?” Says Solomon.
“FOOLS!” The black kite laughs, picking up another rock from the ground. Durazo tries to blind him again with his light, but the black kite moves out of the way. They haven’t gotten him closer to the water, if anything, he only walked farther away from it.
Solomon then gets an idea. Maybe he is from a place where there are more Mystic Ones… A place where people are familiar with markings.
She takes the chance, and takes off her gloves, holding the back of her hand towards the black kite.
“Impossible!” His eyes go wide as he gasps, taking a step back.
“That did it.”
Wherever he belongs, they know about her power. Maybe he is the key to getting some answers at last!
Solomon makes her markings light up, and shows them off to him, her hands dripping with acid.
“Perish, monster!” He throws a cluster of rocks in her direction. She moves to the left, then the right. Miraculously, only one of them hit her, but it doesn’t ignite her. In fact, she hardly even feels the heat from it. Yaroslav, on the other hand… He is ablaze and is trying to put himself out.
It’s clear to Solomon that this bird is terribly afraid of her, or rather, her power. She thinks back to her dreams for just a moment, and charges at the black kite with an outstretched arm.
He backs away, picking up dirt and throwing that at her. It has very little effect, no more than having a piece of ember hit her, rather than a violent explosion. The bird steps back one step. Two steps. Five steps. He then begins running from her, which tells Solomon that he must know a thing or two about her power, things she can’t wait to hear after Lisa knocks him out. She looks in her direction, Lisa is almost at the water, so is the black kite. The wolf looks decidedly less confident, more stressed about the situation, but she pushes on. More cinders are thrown at Solomon, to no effect.
“Begone, demon!” The kite says, becoming more and more desperate.
One step… Two steps…
Splash. Crackle.
Right as the black kite steps into the water, it is electrified. His body convulses and unceremoniously falls onto his back into the water. Solomon breathes a sigh of relief, surprised that she’s not even singed. Her colleagues took more of the fire, but nothing Durazo can’t fix easily. “Time to ask some questions…”
Suddenly, the black kite’s body lights ablaze, burning brighter and brighter until nothing but ashes remain. With it, the fires he created are also put out.
“What… Was that?” She asks, Yaroslav and Durazo now behind her, likely similarly confused.
“This has to be the magic’s doing…” Durazo concludes.
“What happened?” Solomon hears Lisa’s voice as she runs over, only to discover the now wet ashes of the black kite.
“I… I killed him?” She questions.
Solomon looks over at her, and nods, looking grievously irritated. Lisa grits her teeth, throws her cane to the direction where they came from and curses.
“It was too much… I can’t bloody believe it!” She says and pouches a nearby tree. She then shakes her hand in pain.
“Well Lisa, at least we got whatever’s in that sack.” Solomon says in an attempt to calm down the wolf. “We better go see what it is now.”
Solomon looks around. The boat has since sunken, the headless body is still floating in the water, she can see the charred remains of the one whose knee was broken. The third person is nowhere to be seen. All they left behind is whatever is in that sack…
After Yaroslav and Durazo express their complaints about being set on fire, the four walk to the sack.
“Go ahead, Lisa.” Solomon says with a little more sass than she intended.
The wolf picks up the object in the sack, even just by observing, Solomon can tell that it’s rather heavy, the one who threw it must have had good physique to throw it so far.
Lisa takes it out from the sack… It is a book. A very, very old-looking book at that. There is something written on the cover, but it is in a language that none of them even recognise. Lisa opens the book, inside it is text written in the same language. They each take a look, but no one can say anything about it. There are also some small pictures drawn on some of the pages, but they don’t seem to resemble anything.
“It’s like looking at a Rorshach test…” Durazo remarks.
“Well, looks like our job is done here, mates.” Says Lisa, looking thoroughly confused. “...I guess. Let’s go back to HQ.”
Solomon nods in agreement. She didn’t get any answers, but she sure has a lot more questions all of a sudden.