They had gathered in the park, not that far from some buildings.
Ranger HQ had been a college of some kind once.
Basically, a school, but for older people.
There was a bench and grass and a foot path.
A number of Alin’s friends were trying to get a fire started in one of those portable fire pits.
From the bickering it seemed that they were struggling.
The cool wind had picked up as the sun descended over t he west.
“Hey, Lera, can you please help them start the fire… er, don’t blow it up.”
She skipped away happily, still clutching her stuffed unicorn.
“She’s cute,” Kat said.
“Her? The Solar Tyrant? You know that she’s serious about that.”
“It’s good to have ambition.”
“Er, um, uh… this is for you,” he thrust the stuffed bear to her.
“Aww, cute! Thanks!”
He choked on what he wanted to say next and was either saved or blocked by an eruption of cheering and a small pillar of flame.
“Mighty Solar Tyrant, let me be the first to pledge my loyalty to your Tyranny of the Sun,” Steph dropped to one knee and bowed his head.
“Oh god…” Alin rubbed his eyes. “Steph! C’mon, dude! You can’t joke about that.”
“Dude, chill, I’m serious.”
“Lera, don’t accept.”
“Aww, why you got to be like that?”
“Shut up, Steph. You can get in real trouble.”
He wasn’t about to explain what he’d been told by his uncle about the Fae fuckery that Lera had to deal with. Combined with spires fuckery, swearing to Lera could get Steph roped into that whole shit sandwich.
It was a little miracle that Lera had been able to spend so much time out in the real world without the Wild Hunt popping up.
“I know that!” Lera snapped.
“Aww, sorry, Solar Tyrant, maybe later?” Steph said.
“Leave her alone, creepo,” Kat flicked a Dorito at his face.
He caught it in his mouth like a dog.
“Thanks… ugh… ranch… old people were weird. Who makes salad dressing into a chip flavor?” he gagged.
More friends trickled in.
The girls took it up on themselves to shelter Lera from the weirdos as they hogged the warming fire.
“So, I have seen the Tyranny of the Sun and I find that a place away from it leaves me cold,” Victor said.
“Told you so,” Steph added.
“Hey, dude, no offense to your cousin or anything, but… you know…” Isaak whispered.
Alin shrugged.
He wasn’t about to mention all the hidden eyes watching them.
Acceptance of his fate came easily when he realized that there was nothing to be done.
The last person they were waiting for arrived shortly.
Luzi tromped up with her older brother.
Ranger Morningstar.
His ranger name was the same as their surname.
The two had the misfortune of having edgy parents.
Ranger Morningstar’s real name had been dumb enough for the rest of the rangers that they didn’t bother giving him a made up name.
“Listen up, recruits!” the ranger barked. “This,” he held up a 30 pack, “the silver bullet. Getting this cost me. Had I known what was up, I wouldn’t have done it, but orders are orders and I’m already in enough trouble that I’m not about to ask question. So, enjoy, don’t do anything stupid and that little girl,” he pointed at Lera, “doesn’t get a taste, understand!”
They nodded.
“Carry on,” he placed the cold beer on the grass and stomped away.
“That’s it?” Isaak nudged Luzi.
“Shut up!” she snapped.
“It’s better than nothing,” Victor said.
“It’s two beers for only half of us,” Isaak said.
“None for me,” Kat raised a hand.
A few other hands went up.
The sharper ones.
They realized that watchful eyes led to whispered words in parental ears.
Alin shrugged.
The beer wasn’t a problem for him.
His parents were cool with a few as long as he didn’t get wasted and do stupid stuff.
Lera being present introduced a variable.
“Damn it… I’m passing too.”
He was babysitting, therefore he couldn’t drink anything. Had to show he was responsible.
“Alright!” Isaak rubbed his hands. “This night is salvaged then.”
“I think you might have a problem, Isaak,” Luzi said.
“No way! I just want to relax. Junior rangers has kicked my ass for a month.”
The fire pit was warm.
The beers were cold for those that dared their parents’ wrath or were too dumb to realize what had been obvious to the smarter ones.
The badminton game was fun.
Lera certainly seemed to enjoy it.
She showed a good deal of control in using a fraction of her superhuman strength.
With the exception of always making an effort to send the shuttlecock rocketing into Isaak’s face whenever they found themselves on opposite sides.
Lera had good ears.
The only bad thing about the night was that Alin couldn’t find an opportunity to get Kat alone.
He could’ve let it ruin his night with anxiety, but after about an hour and a half he abandoned the idea of asking her out that night.
There was always tomorrow, which thankfully they had free.
Perhaps, he could ask her to the festival?
Just the two of them.
There had been plenty of booths and attractions that they hadn’t gotten to.
The plan took shape and he made his way over to the fire pit.
The heart of the Solar Tyrant’s court.
Her girl attendants were a giggling lot that stared at him with judgment and bemusement.
“Um…”
The whispers and giggles were very distracting.
Even Lera was giggling.
“Wait? What are you guys telling her? You better not be corrupting her impressionable mind.”
“That’s between us in our Sisterhood of the Sun,” Chrome nodded sagely.
“Oh god… you too?”
“Alright, guys, he looks like he’s going to exploded.” Reena rolled her eyes. “Go on, Kat, go put him out of his misery.”
“Reena!” Kat hissed.
“What? It was funny the first three months, but now it’s just, like, get on with it.”
Kat flicked a chip off Reena’s forehead as she stood and dragged Alin by the arm until they reached a good distance.
The noises were more muted. Both from their friends and the distant festival. Closing time drew ever nearer and the crowds were thinning.
The light was dim where Kat had stopped equidistant from the two lampposts.
“Um,” she blushed, tucking her hair behind her ear and gazing at him with a tilted head.
A good sign according to everyone from Victor and Steph to Jayde and Hayden.
“Do you want to go to the festival with me tomorrow?”
The words blurted out of his mouth.
She giggled.
Damn it!
“Um, we already did that today.”
“I mean, I meant, that just us. That is, just the two of us.”
“Like a date?”
“Yes. Date. That. Er… a date. I am asking you on a date. Tomorrow. Festival and stuff…”
“What if I don’t want to go to the festival? I did just go all day.”
Shit!
He thought fast.
Which was slow, because she giggled again.
“I didn’t have a back up plan.” He grinned sheepishly as the heat in his body reached Solar Tyrant levels.
“I’m just teasing,” she stuck her tongue out, “the festival sounds fun.”
He blinked.
“So, uh, that’s a yes?”
God, his brain felt like it was swimming through honey.
“What do you think?” she arched a brow.
“Yes?”
She giggled, laying a hand on his arm.
His heart just about burst out of his chest.
She leaned up toward him.
“Ah, young love, so precarious, so easily interrupted,” a sweet, sibilant voice made them jump.
Black cloak.
Pointy, wide-brimmed hat in black.
A gnarled staff festooned with jingling bones.
Yup.
A witch.
“Um… hi?” he said eloquently. “Are we in danger?”
“Maybe,” she shrugged. “Tis yet unclear, come join us in the fire’s warmth and safety.”
They followed the witch to find two more had already joined the fire pit court.
“— if a rhyming witch guy comes up to you, don’t listen, just run.” A witch in a dark leather long coat wearing a tricorne hat said in between handfuls of Doritos.
The third witch hovered around a clearly uncomfortable Lera, chanting softly and weaving her fingers as though she was knitting.
Eda watched with burning excitement that fogged her glasses.
“Hey! What’re you doing?” Alin charged.
The first witch grabbed Alin’s arm in a vise-like grip that didn’t fit her thin wrist and delicate-looking fingers.
“She divines the threat, now hush, lest you awaken it too soon.”
Lera’s lip began to quiver and her eyes glistened.
That was enough!
He jerked his arm with all his might only for the witch to sigh.
At least she didn’t tighten her grip or draw attention to his weakness.
“Patience is the key ingredient in the pot,” she intoned.
“What even does that mean?” he hissed.
“Wait.”
Not that he had a choice.
The third witch weaved whatever weird spell she was doing.
“Young lady, I’m glad to see you happy and carefree. So, thus, I regret bringing you these words,” she cleared her throat. The voice that followed reverberated as though three spoke in one, but weren’t in sync. “The bright moon turns red when the hunt’s hounds bray, the dark-winged sun should run away.”
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“That was a rhyme, wasn’t it?” Steph whispered.
“Shut up, dude!” Victor punched him in the arm.
Alin rushed over to his cousin.
“You okay?” he hugged her.
She wiped her eyes on his shirt and buried her face in his stomach.
“They won’t let me have fun.”
“They won’t get you.”
“My dad’s not here, Uncle Cal is gone, Aunt Rayna left.”
“We’re here.”
He hoped that was enough.
The rangers finally materialized.
A full stealth squad.
The ranger sergeant went straight to the witches.
“What’s the nature of the threat?” he said.
“As it always is,” the third witch said. “The hunt rides. Though I suspect you already know that,” she quirked her head to the side like an owl.
The ranger sergeant looked like he’d rather chew glass than answer, but relented under the witch’s inscrutable gaze.
“Giant wandering monster incident near the border. Ranger One is still cleaning it up.”
“Fucking tricksters,” the longcoat witch spat.
The ranger sergeant cursed.
“Faerie protocols,” he barked into his radio. “Clear the kids!”
The rangers began herding Alin’s friends toward the buildings.
“The young one stays,” the third witch said.
“Unacceptable. We’re taking her to a defensible position. Too exposed out here.”
“Walls of women hinder the Fae not.”
“Listen, lady, there might be weird shit going on with the spires, but we own those buildings and we’ve still got some protections.”
“They follow their own rules,” the first witch rattled her staff and began burning something into the grass, “come, Lera, we won’t let them harm you.”
Alin’s hands shook as he dug deep into his small pouch of holding to pull out a sleek, slim backpack.
“Recruit! What’re you doing!” one of the ranger’s snapped. “Get over there with the rest of them!”
“Can’t do that, sir.”
A few of his friends looked back and tried to turn around when they noticed he wasn’t going, but were herded away by the rangers.
He gave Kat a smile and a wave as she vanished into the gloom.
“That’s an order, recruit!”
“Sorry, sir, but I’m a Cruces first.”
The back pack opened up.
Flexible Threnium slid into place around his body like a chitinous shell.
The helmet formed around his head.
Systems green in the HUD.
“Fuck! It’s on you. Don’t get in the way,” the ranger headed off.
The multi-weapon’s hilt felt familiar in his hand thanks to hours of practice. The recoilless pistol slid into the holster at his waist.
Lera had her own small bag of holding.
Out came cold-iron armor sized for a child.
Spiked helmet, chest and back plate, vambraces, spike-knuckled gloves, greaves and spike-toed boots.
She pulled out a sheathed dagger that went around her waist and a nasty looking club taller than Alin. Naturally, the hardwood was studded with cold iron spikes.
The longcoat-wearing witch regarded him coolly.
“Lera’s our priority.”
“No, you’ll help him too,” Lera said.
“Sorry, kid, mommy’s orders.”
Alin stood next to his little cousin.
Despite being twice her size, he felt half as small.
The undersuit wasn’t his full power armor.
It wasn’t nearly as powerful or protective.
“Hurry it up, Grace,” the longcoat wearing witch snapped. “I’m feeling a chill and it isn’t the tropical breeze.”
“Witch Evangeline would do well to remember that vinegar repels the flies,” the third witch said.
“Leave off it, Seren. Grace knows she can move faster without trying to make her bones jingle like a Jesus damn orchestra.”
“Our craft is our art, though you wouldn’t know that would you, Witch Evangeline. It doesn’t take much craft nor art to pull the trigger, does it?” Witch Grace continued to trace the large burning pattern into the grass.
“They’re, uh, kinda not what I expected,” Alin whispered.
Lera said nothing, just chewed on her lip.
“Hey, don’t worry, your dad’s probably already on his way.”
Lera pulled a small, beeping device from her pocket.
“I pressed it, but he’s not here yet.”
“Well, maybe Aunt Rayna will be back soon.”
Lera’s lip quivered.
He lay a hand on her shoulder.
“It’ll be fine. Rangers are coming too, see.”
Squads arrived from the nearby HQ.
Ranger Captain Swan Princess led.
Tall, long-limbed, graceful and beautiful despite the scars on her face.
“I need information.”
Witch Evangeline shrugged.
“Fae shit. Probably the Wild Hunt. Could be an incursion straight from the Fae realm.”
“What’s the difference? Be precise,” the ranger captain said.
“Wild Hunt can only enter our world from the UK. They can fly fast so we’d have maybe an hour warning time. We’ve got nothing from our people over there, so ruling that out for now. The second thing is worse. The Fae opens up a hole from their realm and pops out wherever they want. Building owner protections don’t always work against that. And things can get fucky. They open a hole in your house and you might find yourself in the Fae realm rather than them out here. Or your house gets turned into half here, half Fae realm. Might be temporary, might not.”
“So, being out in the open prevents that.”
“Smart and pretty,” Witch Evangeline’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “The natural world cannot be subverted by the Fae in the same way as the works of woman.”
“What threat level are you expecting?”
“Standard Fae are Level 30 minimum. Titled ones are Level 40 minimum. That goes up the higher the title.”
“And the spell she’s casting?”
“Making the hole as small as possible. Hopefully, Daddy or Aunty shows up before that becomes—”
The air tore with a sound that sent them all to their knees.
Even his helmet’s auditory protections did nothing.
“Sisters! I require your assistance!” Witch Grace cried bloody tears.
Witch Seren and Witch Evangeline hurried to positions around the large symbol burned into the grass.
“A triad won’t be enough!” Witch Seren said.
“How can we help?” the ranger captain said.
“Our mana won’t last long enough for this!” Witch Evangeline said. “Not without the preparations we didn’t have time for. If your mages can feed us mana…”
“Done.”
The ranger captain barked orders.
Lessons learned over the years meant that every ranger mage-type was capable of transferring their mana without difficulty.
The air over the symbol opened up like a giant eye.
Its gaze flashed from person to person until it settled on Lera.
“Raven’s child. Sun’s child.”
The voice bled their ears.
“We need more!” Witch Evangeline snarled.
Ranger Captain Swan Princess cursed and ordered the rest of her mages to help the witches.
Alin recognized the danger in that.
The non-mage rangers groused in hushed tones.
“I knew this festival was a bad idea.”
“We’re running ragged just dealing with the zones.”
“You’re just mad you got a bad role.”
“Quiet!” the ranger captain snapped. “Under 40’s keep your distance.”
That didn’t make the handful of Level 40 and above rangers feel any better.
She took a knee in front of Lera.
“I know you have training, but not with us. So, hang back and let us work. Defend yourself, but don’t get in the way.” She turned to Alin. “As for you, Boy.” She shook her head. “Same orders. Maybe that fancy armor will keep you safe.”
The eye-like tear began to vibrate, glowing bright enough to make his faceplate darken.
The witches pressed their hands forward as though trying to hold back a tsunami.
Their chanting reached a desperate, fevered pitch.
One by one, ranger mages dropped, drained of their mana with dangerous speed.
The ranger captain cursed, conjuring a handful of her famed spell orbs. They orbited in the palm of her hands. Different colors shined a kaleidoscope of light to push back against the rainbow spewing from the tear.
Long fingered hands emerged from the opening, grasping, ripping and pulling.
They pulled what Alin understood to be one of the Fae into the real world.
It slid out like a baby being born in all its gross gooey-ness like in those animal documentaries his mom liked to watch.
The Fae, pristine, sparkling sketched a fancy bow.
Alin fell into the uncanny valley.
The Fae was humanoid at first glance or when seen in shadows out of the corner of an eye.
Its limbs were too long and bent in ways they shouldn’t.
Its posture was neither human nor animal.
Its armor was styled like faded leaves, rippling across the forest floor in a non-existent wind. They seemed to curl and crumble before growing anew in an endless cycle.
Its curved blade resembled the bone of a long dead creature bleached and brittle in the sun.
Its curved blade resembled the bone of a newly dead creature glistening red and dripping with strips of meat.
Its long hair hung lank, framing a beautiful face that—
Alin gagged at the sight.
It was instinctive.
He stared into a twisted reflection, like in one of the funhouse mirrors back at the festival.
The Fae dived into a roll and slashed its blade.
A shield-bearing ranger appeared behind its witch target.
Instantaneous Intercept Block.
The soft ting of blade on shield rang out.
Blinding Strike.
The ranger’s axe struck with a flash into a burst of rotten flower petals and tiny animal bones.
It appeared behind a second witch in the triangle.
Sharp pops altered the strike mid-swing—
Taunting Gunfire.
— the blade reached hungrily for the ranger.
A dozen feet.
The Fae had been striking at the witch, now it was at the ranger.
The blade struck a bright magic shield.
A glowing orb the size of an apple hovered over the ranger.
Orb and shield shattered causing Ranger Captain Swan Princess to grind her teeth against the backlash.
She retaliated with a sickly green orb, dousing the Fae with magical acid.
Once again it burst into dying leaves and animal bones.
Countless long-fingered hands pushed their way through the eye-like opening inside the witch ritual circle.
“More!” the witches cried out in an eerie echo.
The ranger captain made a quick decision.
One by one her orbs winked out as she lent her mana.
The Fae grinned and cut at her exposed back.
Things became too fast for Alin to follow.
Blocks, strikes, parries, ripostes and bullets filled the once quiet night with a nightmarish cacophony.
The multi-weapon in his hand felt useless.
He felt useless.
A light drizzle started.
It took a moment for him to realize that the droplets misting his faceplate were red.
Rangers dropped, adding their red to the Fae’s bone blade.
The shielder was the last one left standing and he was rapidly blowing through his Skills to keep the Fae from cutting through the witches and the ranger mages.
How much time had passed?
Seconds?
The ranger pinned the Fae in place with a Skill even as it finally cleaved his shield in twain.
A sudden and violent burst of wind knocked Alin over.
A high-pitched cry.
A cold-iron studded club smashed the Fae’s armored shoulder.
This time it didn’t burst into leaves and bones.
Lera hammered at the Fae with wild swings.
It deflected and dodged while its deformed shoulder slowly popped back into place.
Lera missed badly, plunging her club into the dirt repeatedly.
The Fae kicked her, sending her tumbling away from the light, away from everyone.
Alin finally reacted rather than thinking.
He guessed the Fae’s path since he knew that it was here to take Lera away.
A cybernetic thought turned the multi-weapon into long, sweeping warscythe that clipped the Fae’s legs as it strode after Lera.
It burst into leaves and bones, reappearing behind him.
Warscythe turned into longsword on his back swing.
The Fae parried.
The hardlight blade chipped, but held.
Alin sought the bind, but the Fae was too strong and too quick.
Before he realized what had happened the Fae’s delicate-looking fingers crushed his wrist in a vise-like grip.
The horrifying reflection peered into his faceplate.
A sniff.
A wrinkled nose.
“Unpleasant shell doth conceal the sweet meat.”
It glanced at his holstered pistol.
“Yet, this one knows the ways.”
It lifted him by his arm to bring him closer while he kicked like a helpless puppy being held by the scuff of his neck.
“Unpleasant smell doth conceal familiar meat. Where there was one, is now there two? The court’s commands were clear, passage for one to foul our realm. The Baron of Forest Decay doth proclaim… where there was one, now there is two.”
That didn’t sound good.
The content of the Fae’s words and the sound of its voice.
It was that of slaughtered animals.
The Fae carried him over to where Lera was struggling to her feet.
His little cousin’s cold iron chestplate had a foot-shaped dent.
It grasped for her.
“Raven’s spawn. Sun’s get.”
She grabbed the wrist in tiny, super strong hands and wrapped her tiny, super strong legs around it’s arm.
The strange length of the Fae’s limbs meant that she couldn’t get a proper armbar, but what did technique matter when one had strength?
Dead and dying leaves flaked off the Fae’s vambrace as Lera snapped its arm.
It hissed and tried to shake her off like the game little pit bull she was.
Its fingers strayed too close to her mouth, so she bit down.
“Punishment doth befits you, the Baron of Forest Decay doth procl—”
“Doth this!”
Alin shot it in the face.
Full auto.
Thirty cold-iron flechettes in the creepy, twisted face.
The face-stealing bastard really sounded like dying farm animals now.
It relinquished its hold.
He activated the multi-weapon.
Hardlight edge cut into, but not through its pale neck.
It was bullshit that magical beings could no sell a monomolecular edge.
Superscience should’ve topped weird faerie magic.
Draw cut out.
Rely on muscle memory to parry the bone blade’s stroke just enough.
The impact would’ve broken his arm without the undersuit’s enhancements.
Smooth transition into another cut.
Get parried.
Wait a second?
Wasn’t the Fae’s sword in its other hand?
Parry.
Stumble backward onto his butt because the Fae’s strength blew right through.
Lera spat too-long fingers.
Spat solar fire.
The faceful got the Fae screaming like a piglet being butchered.
“Let’s get back to the others!” he grabbed Lera’s arm and ran.
She grabbed his arm and pumped her little legs, dragging him along behind her like a flag flapping in the wind.
The Fae appeared between them in a burst of dying leaves and animal bones that crumbled into dust when they hit the grass.
He stabbed it in the back.
A quick spin and downward swipe of its healed arm shattered the hardlight blade and forced the wire to automatically recoil before he could trigger it again.
That vise-like grip grabbed his wrist.
Bending, bending, bending backward.
His eyes widened at the pain, the rising panic.
The twisted reflection mirrored him in mockery.
An eyebrow quirked up, visible despite all of the holes within holes in its face that refused to heal.
“Doth this…”
Snap!
White lights danced in Alin’s vision.
Iron tang filled his mouth.
The undersuit resisted, but failed in the end.
The crack was muffled, not that he noticed in the sudden pain.
His right arm dangled useless at the elbow, sending throbbing spikes through the rest of his body with each swing.
The Fae grabbed him by the ankle and lifted him up, placing its second hand on his thigh.
Fingers so long that they encircled his muscular thigh or rather… did they lengthen?
He braced for pain.
“Doth this—”
A child’s scream, but in anger more than fear.
Flying, spinning and crashing.
Alin’s injured arm twisted painfully against his tumbling body.
Screams of dying piglets mingled with Lera’s screams.