I landed next to Ara as the girl swayed back to her feet. Skull for her part seemed to be recovering and even as I watched she shook her head vigorously then grabbed me and dragged me towards the wall as Ara waved a hand again. Behind us the Crawlers incoming swipe was once again blocked as the piles of rope reanimated and lashed out coiling around the massive metal claw, just like before the second the ropes struck the automata’s limb it froze in place, not just bound but... drained. The golem seemed what can only be described as nonplussed by this development and I could hear loud banging echoing from inside its metal shell as new punch cards were tried and discarded by its internal mechanisms as it sought a solution.
Ara looked at me sadly, her skin greyer than normal except across her stomach where deep red blood still dripped freely from her wound.
“I'm so sorry,” she cried her tears leaving black marks down her cheeks. “I... I know you think I'm a monster... but please let me help you, let me save you, then you can do whatever you want with me.”
I opened my mouth to reply or sooth or quite frankly I admit; to try to come up with some kind of clever action book quip but then as now I drew a complete blank and just stared at her vacantly until a snapping cracking noise drew my attention.
The Crawler displayed frighteningly levels of intelligence for an automaton (I often wonder, with what we later found out about the Crawlers and their patron, just... what... the Crawler actually was) had come up with a plan. Its bound claw was entirely disabled, not just tied up but fully paralysed, so it had used its other pincer the limb upwards until the ropes went taught then letting go of its arm it had sliced the flat of its free pincer through the mass of hardened cable. Even with magic imbuing them they broke; with that distinctive twanging retort that all musicians fear.
Ara stumbled to the floor, her skin suddenly crisscrossed by white pressure marks like the ones you get when pinched but these looked a lot more painful. Magical feedback can be really nasty, take it from me.
“Ara!” I yelled diving towards the falling girl as the Crawlers claw spun towards us. “...get us out of here!” I saw the looming shadow of the golem, felt Ara’s warmth in my arms, felt a strong hand cease my collar and, as the automata raised its claws again... we weren’t there.
I’ve never gotten used to this, not in all the eons I’ve known Skull and no matter how many times she uses her magic on me. Mirror-porting (as she calls it) feels really.... strange; there’s no other word for it. I could go on about mirrors and angles and stuff but really what it's like is a second of bright light and endless reflection then the world seems to melt around you as your body stops working and then you’re somewhere else. It's a lot like I’ve always assumed getting drunk was like.
The three of us were now standing across the warehouse and feeling slightly... well drawn out is the only way to describe it (a bit like a magical hangover to use my previous analogy) which I knew meant she’d had to use a reflective surface rather than a mirror. I turned to regard a ridiculously large gong sitting on the ground next to us and for a second I found myself looking for something to hit it with, then I slapped myself (hurting my hand somewhat on my own mask) and turned to the others.
“Ara; Skull you both ok?” Yes I know a rather stupid and cliché question for someone with a gut wound and someone whose had just teleported five people across the length of a warehouse[106] but cut me some slack I was being chased by a giant killer golem and I still hadn't had time to process that Ara was a mage.
Ara was staring around herself in awe at the Physician hanging limply from one of her hands. Skull was bent double but even as she answered me she straightened up. “Fine Bright.”
“I... I can't, I mean... it's usually just the ropes that I...” babbled Ara with an edge of hysteria in her voice. “I... I didn't know I could do that!”
“You can’t,” I said, leaning over the girl and taking her hand. “We can.” And I let my magic flow out. The golden light poured from my skin and into Ara like molten gold, it washed across and into every scrap and scratch and bloody wound wiping them away like the sea washes away a sandcastle.
Ara looked up at me, her eyes as wide as saucers and still dripping black tears like twin rivers but she managed a smile, it was small and scared yes but it was brave as well. “You’re... you... you can't be...Like me?” She looked between the two of us. “....I knew there was a reason I thought you were cute.” That last was said with obviously forced joviality as she tried to press down her mounting terror and puzzlement but I didn't like to point that out at the time, she was having enough trouble holding herself together without me commenting on it.
I smiled (although it was hidden by my mask) and clapped her on the shoulder “Yeah we’re all mages and it doesn’t change who we are... or you for that matter are. Now I'm sorry to say this but we really don't have time for a full pep talk since a huge crab golem of doom is bearing down on us as we speak.”
Even as I spoke the distant sound of grinding gears and shattering wood, that we all now knew heralded the Crawler’s arrival, was growing steadily nearer.
“The warehouse is nearly empty,” reported Skull peeking around a crate. “Seems even cultists have a survival instinct.”
“Which means I...we can use our magic right?” asked Ara with a somewhat childlike level of glee, I think she was wilfully trying to put out of her mind the utter terror of the situation. “Nobody's watching us!”
“Quite so,” agreed Skull. “And even if any do see something they are the very definition of unreliable witnesses.”
I nodded and allowed myself to smile. “Right but remember we don't know where Blood is so.... aim.”
The deafening cracking of wooden crates reached a crescendo and we saw the spinning teeth of huge gears protruding over the top of the nearest wall of crates and boxes. I just managed to haul Ara to her feet as the Crawler arrived.
It didn't even bother smashing aside the wall of crates; it just stomped straight through them; grinding them into sawdust as it charged. Ara didn't hesitate despite her confusion instead she laughed, not like Blood who even I have to admit sounds maniacal and insane, instead Ara sounded... pure. She launched herself forwards, slid under a great scything claw and skimmed between its piston-like legs. As the golem tried to turn Ara waved a hand, instantly the ropes on the floor struck out at the automaton lashing into its gear filled leg joints binding the moving teeth into immobility and freezing the golem in place, even the rattling of its punch cards sounded slower and quieter. I wanted to applaud (probably old hat to you magic like this but remember this was only the fourth mage I’d seen in my whole life I was very impressed... well technically she was the fifth... but I don't like talking about that and the others didn't know yet).
Unfortunately this thing was smart; far smarter than a golem should be and this time it didn't even pause to think. It simply pulled the two afflicted legs up (again the legs themselves seemed entirely paralysed but its pincers weren’t) tightening the ropes and then it snipped through both knotted bunches. This time around it was free in seconds and Ara would have probably been in a lot of trouble but this time she wasn't alone.
Skull reached over my shoulder and pulled the reflection off the gong. Yes you read that right and yes it looked very disturbing, the gong was left matte and dull without any shine on its metal and Skull was holding a writhing puddle of light and rippling air which she hurled at Ara. As the Crawler punched forwards with a claw the ripple struck the air in front of the half-breed and expanded like water being poured onto a flat surface becoming a perfectly circular mirror that hung unsupported in the air.
The Crawlers huge metallic limb slammed into the magical mirror and its own reflection exploded out. The two vast arms met like charging armies; with a shower of sparks and a deafening clang then they burst apart. The mirrored arm flickered in the air for a moment then vanished as Skull lost her grip on the magic[107].
As the golem staggered backwards I reached to my belt and, thanking my forethought, pulled out a handful of seeds and hurled them at the automaton. As they flew through the air I focused on them and willed my magic towards them. The seeds shattered; becoming balls of growing expanding greenery even as they hit the metal of the Crawler. For a second they looked like some sort of strange green toupee on its carapace before they hooked their roots in and began to grow in earnest. The Crawler honestly seemed surprised to find itself in the middle of a small copse of weeping willows, it froze in place and even its back mounted locomotion gears stopped moving but only for a heartbeat, all too soon the dreadful mechanical chattering returned.
“Come on!” I bellowed, grabbing Ara by the shoulder. “That won’t hold it for long...”
“...And yet I still think you overestimate yourself.” Cut in Skull as a flying spray of splinters shot past us (whilst I can grow a tree in a single second I sometimes forget they aren’t any stronger than a normal tree unless I keep pumping magic into them... oh well life is a learning experience).
For a few heartbeats we didn't move a muscle, just stared at the golem as it raised its huge claws high... then Skull broke out of her stupor “Run!” She howled, grabbing me and Ara and dragging us along another crate lined aisle. Sprinting through a faintly lit warehouse filled with illegal weapons in poorly sealed crates and echoing with the whining gears of a rampaging murder golem made me wish I had someone to pray to.... or failing that another Aether-Disruptor would have done instead all I could do was run like the Abyss was drawing me in.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
We managed to gain a lead on the great clanking golem quite easily. It was strong and unbelievably tough but it definitely wasn't fast. Sliding under a rack of toppled axes and leaping over a box marked Clockwork Grenades that was (somewhat worryingly) ticking loudly we reached Skulls destination. It was one of the actual walls of the warehouse made from porcelain plated stone and reinforced heavily lacquered wood. Before we could comment on it, Skull, who was still hauling us like children by our hands I will point out, kicked open a small side door (mandated by the current Senator of the Extinguishers[108]) and dashed through.
Dragged out into the night I found myself enveloped once again in the stink of fish guts and salt as before me stretched the desolate docks and the living ocean. For a second I felt genuinely hopeful seeing the sea again... then Skull collapsed in front of me[109]. I scrambled to stop, my boots skidding on the sea slicked steps as my arm was dragged down by my falling friend. I found myself suddenly having to shift a whole girl's worth of dead weight and I desperately tried to haul her back to her feet as the Crawler grew ever closer. If it hadn't been for Ara I honestly think it would have got us. She arrived at that second and lifted Skull up one handed, dropping her back on her feet and lacing her huge grey arm under the girl’s right one.
“She's out of it. Your call!” Ara snapped at me in such a tone of natural authority that I obeyed without thinking
Looking around at the moonlit tiles and the distant glowing windows I tried to think back to all the lectures Skull had given me on tactics, “aim for that,” I yelled pointing at the mouth of a tiny grubby alleyway some hundred metres distant. “It can't follow us in there and it’s going to take it an eon to open that door, we’re going to be ok!!” One day it is my fondest hope I will learn to stop saying things like that.
Behind us the warehouse wall exploded. Huge chunks of wood and stone slammed into the ground around me and skittered away causing the cobbles to shatter into even more flying shards. Desperately I planted my feet squarely and spun, I managed a frankly balletic twist if I may say so, swaying back from the explosion of sawdust and porcelain splinters and coming to an unharmed halt a full ten metres away. Looking back I saw Skull still clinging onto Ara both just barely behind the cover of the plaza fountain, I half waved at the two girls (to reassure them... pointlessly as it turns out) then turned back towards the warehouse... just in time to see the boulder sized mass of reinforced wood and metal that hammered into my head and smashed me to the floor.
For a handful of heartbeats I lost consciousness; then I found it again; and a lot of pain along with it. Flicking my eyes open I hissed at the agony of my ribs which felt like grinding shards of ice in my chest as I breathed (luckily this went away after like ten minutes)[110]. Propping myself up on my elbows with effort I found my mouth was filling with blood and that a horrific dull ache had started in my temple.
“Bright!” I looked up painfully, my neck snapping and twanging as I moved and saw Skull kneeling in front of me with even her legendary cool in tatters. “Oh god... we thought you were dead!”
Each grabbing one of my arms, Ara and Skull hauled me out of the wreckage just as the last chunk of wall was shattered and the Crawler clanked out into the moonlight. The stinking clanking monstrosity scuttled sideways out of the ruined wall moving with a disturbingly crab-like gait. It spun almost gracefully on the spot and snapped its huge claws at us; I swear it was enjoying this.
I was pulled to my feet by my two friends and we stared up at the automaton. It began to prowl across the square slowly, obviously daring us to run again but I couldn’t. My bruised[111] ribs throbbed with agony on each breath whilst Skull was favouring one leg and looked ready to collapse again. We couldn’t fight this thing and it knew it.
For a second my eyelids fluttered closed; I forced them open again with an effort of will to find Ara stood before me. She brandished a pair of knives each less than a pin to the steel beast bearing down on us. I could see that her hands were trembling slightly. “Leave them alone! It’s me you want.”
The Crawler slowed for a second and then from somewhere deep inside its bulk a voice sounded; a familiar shrieking preaching voice we had heard all too recently.
“GOLEM! INITIATE CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL... KEEP OUR SECRETS.... KILL EVERYONE IN THIS WAREHOUSE, STARTING WITH THAT HALF-BREED... EVERYONE... STARTING... EVERYONE... KILL”
As Nathanial’s message faded away I felt the pounding vibration of the Crawlers feet again. The fountain we were sheltering behind was brushed into pottery shards with a claw the size of a cart and I looked up into the blank metallic face of the crawler which somehow still managed to convey bloodlust filled excitement as it raised both its pincers high.
“Anyone got any ideas?” Skull asked, looking at the two of us with weary resignation.
Ara shook her head hopelessly. I opened my mouth to speak but at the last second a noise stopped me, on the wall above me a raven was crowing.
“Yes,” said a voice behind me, a voice as sweet as sin and as soft as silk. “Get out of the way.”
I didn't even turn, I just hurled myself to the floor slamming into Ara on the way down; we landed in a heap with Skull (who obviously had the same idea). Writhing like fish I managed to half roll and look up just as the light flared.
Blood stood there her mask askew, the moons silhouetting her and in each of her hands was a ball floating ball of flaming blood. With a snarl of effort she flung her hands out and a barrage of glowing bolts slammed into the giant automaton making it stagger backwards. Just like before it froze for a moment as the fireballs struck it.
Blood sagged slightly but kept standing as she looked at us.
“You do know I'm nowhere near strong enough to kill this thing alone right?” She asked us. “GET UP YOU IDIOTS AND HELP ME!”
Something in her tone grabbed me by the lapels and pulled me to my feet making me forget my own exhaustion. If I’d ever doubted that she was a fellow noble I didn't know, that voice was the voice of one born to be obeyed and I wasn’t going to let her show me up. I drew on every iota of magic I could hold within me then let it burst out in an explosion of golden light that struck all four of us healing, reinforcing, bolstering.
“What’s the plan?” Blood asked Skull, keeping her rapier raised.
Skull ever the tactician thought for a moment and nodded to herself. “Magic seems to affect it... I don't know how but each time a spell hits the thing it freezes up or slows down, we just need to keep pouring magic into it until we overload its punch-core and then...”
“Then we melt it and dance in the puddle,” finished Blood with an unnecessary degree of amusement in her voice. “Got it!”
The Crawler seemed to dislike that plan and it spun on the spot with a staccato hammering of legs and swung a pincer down hard onto Blood, the tiny red figure vanished under the multi-ton armature. Reflexively I levelled a glowing hand and poured my magic into her feeling bones bending... and then unbending under my ministrations.
“Ahhhhh!” Blood screamed and exploded out from under the massive claw running up its gear studded arm, pausing for a moment she waved her arms and coated her blades in a layer of burning magical blood. “Time to get smelting!” She crowed and struck.
The flash of light lit up the dock as metal screamed on metal and one of the Crawlers vast back mounted gears went spinning away. For a moment I saw flame blooming in the machine's guts and as before the golem stalled for a second but after a mere handful of moments the golem rumbled back to life and this time it seemed... angry. It twisted on the spot with a sound like a lead piano being played and swatted Blood in midair with all its strength. As mentioned (many times before) Blood is tiny and she flew like a thrown ball down half the length of the deserted dock before a discarded fishing net lashed upwards like a whip and caught her out of the air dragging her back down to the floor with slightly less than bone breaking force.
“Oww... Thank you Ara.... maybe slightly more gently next time... please?”
Even as Blood began to laboriously lever herself upright, Skull charged in. The black clad girl twirled her sabre like a conductor’s baton weaving a gleaming trail around the great lumbering automaton hacking off plates and pistons, gears and wheels. Each time the Crawler tried to round on her Skull stepped into its own polished armour and disappeared; walking out of its opposite flank and attacking again and again as the armoured limbs froze and stilled around her.
Then... her sabre stuck in the edge of the huge armour plate that covered its central core. For a second I began to panic then I heard Skull laugh, “Got it!” She crowed and with a great heaving motion she pried open the metal. “Now!”
“Right!” called Ara and grabbing the end of her rope webbing she pulled the entire wrap exploded away from her torso (leaving just her rather ugly dock workers shirt that I swear was tailored for a man) and lashed out through the air like the striking tail of a scorpion. The hugely heavy whip of aged rope smashed into the hole in the automatons armour like a thunderbolt sending shattered chunks of gears and fragments of other delicate internal mechanisms flying in every direction. The great behemoth was launched backwards by the assault and landed in a sprawled heap at the end of the pier. Without getting up it began to make a deep chattering lowing sound that was disturbingly... pain filled; for a machine I mean.
The golem didn't move, apart from the strange screeching hissing sound it was completely still, I thought we’d won and I was already opening my mouth to make a witty comment[112] when somewhere inside the golem there was a crackling sound like lightning. The entire automaton shuddered and then without warning it exploded back into motion one claw raised it back to its feet as the other swung out and crushed Skull... or would have if Blood hadn't shoulder charged her out of the way a fraction of a second before it hit.
Looking up I saw the Crawler limp in a circle and turn towards me. Its cargo ramp “mouth” now hung half open dripping oil and steam; its few remaining gears clicked madly side to side, some missing teeth some entirely stripped. It raised its pincers and tried to clack them but only one would open, it examined the other for a moment then turned to look at us. Golem though it was, I saw true hate in its blazing eyes as the candles within them guttered for a second. Slowly, pointedly, it took a step towards us.
“Oh this thing SO has to die.” Muttered Blood scrambling to her feet on my left, Skull disentangled herself from the younger girl and nodded.
“Koth yes!” She snarled.
“And it’s going to,” spat Ara as her ropes coiled back into her hands. “Right?”
The three of them looked at me and I felt just an inkling of what my life would be like; just for a moment I remember feeling this sense of... belonging; and just like that I finally had the words.
“Right! Let’s show what happens when it messes with the Blade Brigade!” I yelled and we charged.
The poignant and thrilling moment was only slightly undermined by Blood muttering. “I could have thought up a better name.”