Emil

Emil gazed down from his perch. The roads at the boundaries between the Second and Third Sectors were surprisingly empty, absent of Sentinel patrols. The frigid night air clung to his skin, seeping in from the fabric of his cloak and the gaps in his leather armor.

The moon was out in full bloom tonight. Its ethereal presence was striking against the backdrop of the ominous night sky. Dark clouds still lingered, periodically blotting out the celestial object. The result was a flickering eerie glow cast upon the city.

Emil was not a believer of omens, but the haunting glare of the moon was daunting. Especially since they were about to do something insane.

He spotted Anna clinging to the shadows of the buildings on the streets below, cautiously creeping forward towards the forested area of the Third Sector. She was in her night outfit. A leather satchel draped over her back, presumably containing the various items she needed to burn the temple down.

I guess I was being foolish for hoping that she’ll back out of this.

While he was still beneath the moon’s gaze, he checked the weapons hidden on his body. Two daggers and a set throwing knives were strapped to his thigh. His Azurite pendant dangled snuggly below his neck.

Satisfied, he descended from his perch, scaling down the height of the building, while wondering how he ended up becoming an accomplice to arson.

Objectively speaking, he had plenty of reasons to help Anna out.

One, their goals were aligned. He had always planned to return to the sacred grove to retrieve tangible evidence of the nefarious research being conducted there.

Two, he agreed that the lab should be destroyed. He couldn’t rest easy knowing that there were man-eating monsters prowling Azure City. Innocent civilians aside, there was also Mia and Raz to consider. If she ever ended up as a victim—

Stop it. He shook his head to ward off the heart-wrenching thought. He didn’t even want to consider the possibility.

Lastly, there was guilt towards Ellen. Over and over again, he wondered if he could have prevented her death. If he ran just a bit faster. If he was a little less hesitant. If he was a bit bolder in his pursuit. Then perhaps, he could have arrived in time before the monster gouged her throat.

Rather, Emil’s reluctance to get Anna involved was because of her status as a civilian. He couldn’t, in good conscious, let someone like her venture into a dangerous situation because of some misplaced vigilantism.

But, in the end, he couldn’t convince Anna to stand down. Knowing her, she would have gone forward with her plan regardless of his participation.

Emil already failed to prevent a friend’s death once. He refused to let the same thing happen again.

Thud!

He stuck the landing, plopping down just a block ahead of Anna’s position. He walked down to meet her in the middle.

“Good evening,” he said, pulling down his mask as Anna came into view under the somber moonlight. There was a distinct lack of streetlamps in this area due to their proximity to the uninhabited Third Sector.

“I was afraid you might have disappeared on me again,” Anna said, casting a suspicious glance as she looked around, “Where did you come from anyways? I swear I would have seen you even if you went ahead of me.”

“You don’t need to worry about that.” Emil quickly motioned towards the satchel on her back. “Tell me what you’ve got in there and what your plan is.”

She opened the bag. “Nothing too complicated. A flint and steel for starting a fire. And these,” she said, taking out a canteen containing a black liquid. Emil furrowed his nostrils—immediately wincing at the wave of pungent fumes coming from the bottle. The odor was obnoxiously thick and suffused with an intoxicating sweetness.

“What the hell is that?”

“Naphtha. Our ignition source.” Anna smirked, apparently proud of her choice of fuel. “We’ll smear this along any flammable items inside the temple. The furniture. The walls with oil paints. Documents. Any exposed wooden structures plopping up the ancient building. This thing burns fast and it should grow hot enough to crack the stones making up the temple. If not, the destruction of the wooden supports should at least cause it to collapse.”

“And why exactly are you so confident at planning an arson?”

The question earned him a dirty look. “Do you really want to know?” she retorted. Emil gulped at the implications. His instincts warned him not to pry.

“…Never mind then.” He turned his attention to the canteens. “How about the naphtha then? I wasn’t aware this is something you can get this easily.”

Anna snorted. “You can get almost anything in this country with enough money, Emil.”

Right. This girl comes from a merchant family.

“In any case, naphtha isn’t particularly difficult to buy. The mines in Nordica often find deposits of it by accident during their search for Azurite. My information broker referred me to a supplier from black markets.”

I feel like I shouldn’t be hearing this. Emil held his forehead, suddenly feeling nauseous. He wasn’t sure if it was from the residual fumes of the naphtha or the influx of scandalous information pouring out of Anna’s mouth. The ease at which this girl skirted the laws made his head spin.

***

“I’m only going to say this once,” Emil began as they neared the entrance of the Third Sector wilderness, “On the off chance that we’re discovered, listen to my direction. I’ll make the decision whether to run or fight. Also, try not to use your Gift unless you feel your life is at risk. There’s probably not many Exalted in this city that could command electricity like you.”

“Alright, alright, I got it.”

“One more thing.” He turned around and stared at Anna in the eyes. “Resolve yourself. In the worse case scenario, we might have to kill those researchers to cover our tracks. Under no circumstances can we allow them to suspect us of being the perpetrators.”

Anna’s eyes widened. “But that’s—”

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“A very real possibility,” he stressed, “We’re already aware of what the Council and the Academy are willing to do to protect its image and keep their projects going. Just imagine the lengths they’ll go to punish dissidents.”

Silence choked the air. Anna eventually nodded in agreement.

I really hope it doesn’t come to that. Ideally, they would enter the temple, set it aflame, and make a clean escape before anyone arrives. Based on his observations over the past two days, the researchers were usually active around midnight. The plan was to finish everything and cover up their tracks before the midnight bell.

With that in mind, Emil led the way into the forest, following the hidden Azurite trail back to the sacred grove.

***

It felt like an eternity had passed before he finally saw a glimpse of moonlight under the dark woods. They were near the end of the Azurite path. Emil pulled his mask back over his mouth and motioned for Anna to stop.

“Take a five-minute break. We’re at the edge of the grove. Check the satchel to make sure everything is still okay,” he said before poking his head out of the dense undergrowth.

Moonlight shone over the sacred grove. The pale ethereal light bounced off the decapitated statues sprawled along the grove, casting an unsettling tone over the area. Emil glanced around. No movements. No sounds. Just the faint crickets of nocturnal creatures lingering in the woods. The path to temple seemed clear. He looked up, roughly discerning the relative location of the moon.

Another hour or so before midnight.

‘Ready?” he turned back and asked. Under the shadows of the moonlight, he saw Anna nodding. “Then let’s go.”

He grabbed the satchel from Anna and stepped out into the opening. This time the two of them rushed towards the temple in silence. Much of the grove was the same as before, except—

Blood. The foul stench proliferated the air. The ruined grounds just before the temple was bathed in puddles of crimson. The corpses of the monster wolves that they encountered last night were sprawled across the surface. Flies buzzed in the vicinity, poking at the rotting flesh with glee.

That’s fast. They already found the corpses and moved them over. Emil had a bad premonition. “We should hurry.”

As they reached the temple entrance, he pressed his ears against the stone walls, listening for any signs of activity. Silence. Emil slowly entered, clinging to the edge of the moonlight’s shadows as he scanned the interior.

Thankfully, it was empty.

“I think we’re clear.”

“Then give me a few canteens of naphtha and the flint and steel,” she said, pinching her nose at stench of rot, “I don’t want to be here any second longer.”

Both of them went to work immediately. Emil tried to ignore the grotesque sights around him. It was impossible not to notice, however. Dismembered animal parts dangled from the ceilings. Mutilated carcasses tossed haphazardly onto the floor. The endless patches of wet and dried blood smeared against the walls and ground.

Everywhere he looked was something out of a nightmare. His stomach stirred uncomfortably. It was a visceral revulsion towards the madness in front of him. Suddenly, he understood Anna’s drive to burn this place down. Something like this laboratory shouldn’t have never existed, much less on the grounds of a sacred grove. It was blasphemous.

Emil uncorked the canteen of naphtha. The pungent smell intermingled with the ferric stench made him light-headed. He poured, letting the black liquid drench any flammable parts around him. They weren’t difficult to find. The dilapidated temple was poorly maintained despite being used as a laboratory. Wooden components poked out from the ruins of the stone walls. Oil paintings on the walls defiled by blood. The myriads of workbenches, chairs, and shelves built with wood.

Soon, he emptied all of his bottles. Anna was still working on the deeper sections of the temple. While she was busy, Emil moved towards the workbenches that he intentionally left unblemished. He sifted through the mess of documents and notebooks sprawled on the desk, skimming through the writings, numbers, and diagrams listed within.

This should work.

He packed a few that described the experiments in detail into Anna’s satchel. These would serve as evidence to prove that these amoral projects were taking in Azure City under the Council of Mana’s discretion.

Now I need to come with an excuse for this to Anna without exposing my connection to Steiger. He frowned, mulling over his options. Absent-mindedly, his eyes lingered onto the puddle of black naphtha on the floor, slowly mixing with blood.

The puddle suddenly stirred.

Emil raised an eye. Am I imagining it? He wiped his sweaty face with his sleeves, trying to clear the moisture dangling over his eyelids. He blinked. It happened again. It was unmistakeable—there was a faint wave rippling across the puddle.

Something’s outside.

He rushed to the entrance of the temple. Immediately, he overheard sounds of activity leaking through the thin walls.

“…I think that’s last of the specimens.” It was a familiar disgruntled voice, belonging to one of the researchers they encountered last night.

Why are they here already?! Emil clenched his teeth. There was at least half an hour left before midnight.

“The boss won’t be happy about that they’re dead.”

“What else can we do? At least we got them back. There’s probably something we can scavenge and learn from their corpses,” another research replied, “I’ll go prepare the laboratory before his arrival.”

Shit, he’s coming!

“Anna!” Emil whispered with as much urgency as he could muster, “Anna!”

Silence. No response. She was too far deep inside to hear him. There was no time to move and get her.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The researcher was by the entrance.

Emil threw himself against the wall, hiding behind the same pillar flanking the entrance that saved them last night. The researcher’s footsteps echoed against the spacious chambers of the temple interior. Emil could see his shadow stretched outwards on the other side of the pillar.

The man suddenly stopped.

Emil held his breath. His heart raged. Why did he stop? He stretched his eyes to the edges of his periphery, trying to discern what was going on. He caught a glimpse of the researcher turning his head, seemingly stupefied at whatever had his attention.

The man suddenly took a loud whiff.

The naphtha!

In the midst of his panic, Emil forgot about the pungent scent of the black liquid. Undoubtedly, the distinct sweet scent permeated most of the temple.

“Erik?” the researcher called out hesitantly while stepping back towards the entrance, “I think we—”

Emil lunged.

Mana enhanced the power of his legs as he tackled the researcher to the ground. He immediately pinned him down as his left hand moved to cover the man’s mouth with cloth. His right hand reached for one of the daggers concealed on his body.

The right side of his shoulder suddenly exploded in pain. In the corner of his eyes, he saw a razor-sharp vine stab into his shoulder blades. The researcher was already attacking with his Gift.

Emil resolved to kill. He plunged the dagger downwards. He was mid-swing when he suddenly lost his footing. Something grappled onto his ankles, dragging him backwards as he flopped to the ground.

Squelch!

His dagger still struck. Blood stained the end of the blade, but Emil instinctively knew the slash was shallow. He immediately cut himself loose from the tendril around his foot. Before he could resume his assault, a forest of vines sprouted from the temple floor between him and the researcher. The vines immediately snapped at him like whips.

Emil dove to the ground. He pressed his hands against the surface. A stone wall surged before him. The vines struck the hastily made construct—each swing cleaving off a chunk of rock.

“Erik!” the researcher screamed after spitting out his gag, “Intruders!”

The ground suddenly rumbled.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Heavy footsteps thundered from outside of the temple. The wall closest to the temple suddenly broke apart. A monstrosity burst from the wreckage. The goliath stood nearly eight feet tall, towering just beneath the ceiling of the temple. Its pupils were bloodshot. Jaws elongated. Its enormous frame bulged with unnatural muscle mass.

Emil gawked at the creature. It took him a second to realize this monstrosity was probably Erik, the disgruntled researcher from last night—now morphed into an ogre.

Is that his Gift?!

He narrowed his eyes. Mana spiraled violently around the ogre, confirming his suspicions. Erik was a shapeshifter. An Exalted that could transform their body into another form.

Can I even fight this?

His instincts screamed at him to flee from the terrible beast before him. Emil bit into his lips, silencing the thought. He couldn’t run. Not when Anna was still somewhere deep inside the temple.

The other researcher was now also on his feet. His hands were pressed against his neck where Emil had cut him earlier. The vines he controlled swayed capriciously in front of him, threatening to run amok at a moment’s notice.

The ogre stomped towards him.

Well, this is fucking terrible. Emil smirked nervously as he slowly backed away. His head went into overdrive as his eyes darted about for ideas out of this mess.

“Stop!” Anna’s voice suddenly rang over the chaos.

She was standing in the middle of the laboratory, illuminated beneath the ominous moonlight streaming in from the ceiling. In her outstretched hands was the flint and steel.