Shara’s breathing came fast and heavy as she passed through the portal room, the Chronosteel metal rods reaching up through the glass and into the water above. There were some extra piles of dirt in the room, but they probably had something to do with whatever crazy plan Tel had come up with – I’ll have to ask him about it when I see him.

Like before, the portal sat above the glass ceiling in the middle of the rods in the water, smaller than the one from the forest bunker, though she could keenly feel something watching her from within. Shaking off the creepy sensation, she went wide around the metal poles, and then through the door on the far side of the room. The hallway beyond the portal room looked almost identical to the hallway before it, other than the numbers seemingly seared in the walls – Count’s bombs.

Should I set those off now? Ah, maybe I’ll wait until I’m out the hallway.

And it was a long hallway, stretching far ahead of Shara, lit by the same flameless torches which revealed a single person standing and waiting about halfway down.

“Is Tel with you?” a meek female voice asked as Shara slowed.

Shara looked at the woman – Was she even old enough to be called a woman? – and ransacked her memory for who she was. She looked familiar… ah, right. Inside-Out Girl they called her.

She was actually kind of pretty, considering the name.

“Tel went through a long time ago. Should be waiting for us on the other side,” Shara said, eying the rest of the hallway, and what had to be a staircase in the distance. “Born and the others passed?”

“Just a few minutes ago,” the girl said.

“Then we should get going too,” Shara said, her chain still growing link by link behind her to keep up the web around the town. If it slowed any of those Tailcoats down for even a minute, it could make all the difference… though she was beginning to worry about reaching a limit on its growth. “Come on,” she said, pushing that worry aside. It would either keep going or it wouldn’t. She couldn’t change that.

“No,” the girl said.

“Pardon?” Shara asked, already several steps past the girl.

“Sorry,” the girl said, lowering her head in a very Tel-like gesture – I bet these two get along wonderfully. “Tel hasn’t come through yet. I… don’t want to go without him. He was… nice to me.”

Shara almost rolled her eyes at the sentiment, but then the words finally sunk in.

“What do you mean Tel hasn’t come through yet?” Shara asked, turning around, and walked back over to the girl. “Neela dropped him off at the tunnel entrance ages ago.”

The girl’s eyes followed the way Shara’s chain hung unnaturally in the air, then answered without looking up. “I’ve been here the whole time. Tel didn’t come through. He left after we… set up the clocks, then the next people I saw were Count, then Born and the others.”

“And you’ve been in the hall the whole time?” Shara asked, looking back down the tunnel she’d come from. Back towards the Tailcoats who really wanted her dead.

“I have,” the girl said.

“What about Neela?” Shara asked.

“She went by just before Born with some others,” the girl said, and Shara cursed under her breath.

What were the chances the girl was wrong? Maybe she’d taken a bathroom break or something. Looking at her, no, no that wasn’t the case. Which meant Tel was still back in the compound somewhere.

“Damnit, Tel,” Shara swore again, then looked at Inside-Out Girl. “Get out of here. Go tell Neela and the others to be ready to blow the tunnels.”

“What about Tel?” the girl asked.

“I’m going to go pull his ass out of the fire, again,” Shara said. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he isn’t singed too badly.”

“I can… help…” the girl said, voice dropping to almost a whisper.

“You will, by telling the others to be ready. There are Tailcoats coming, so collapsing these tunnels is the best way to keep everybody safe. Hey, do you know if Tel finished whatever he was planning in the portal room?”

“We finished,” the girl said.

“One less thing to worry about. Now, get going,” Shara said, staring down the girl until she finally turned and started towards the exit. “Little faster!” Shara snapped, and Inside-Out Girl began to run.

Now, if only Shara could work up the same motivation to go in the opposite direction, back towards the Tailcoats.

“You owe me, Tel,” Shara said, taking a deep breath and running back alongside her extended chain. “Owe me big time.”

*

Anad had been forced to take his small unit the long way around the sawing chains – Regulars just didn’t have the necessary agility to get through unscathed – but they were at the town now.

And the chains should slow down those monsters.

Anad glanced back at what was left of the battle, more units than his splintering as the confrontation wore on. They’d had to fight through a few more of the creatures, but monster, Mediator, and Regular bodies covered the previously green hill in a carpet of red.

“Hey… do you hear that?” Tory asked, snatching Anad’s attention back. “Sounds like… screaming.”

Most of the Regulars’ heads turned back towards the hilltop, but the sound wasn’t coming from that direction. No, it was coming from inside the town somewhere. And it wasn’t the nice kind of screaming. Somebody was suffering, each cry torn out of their throat with a note of torment that sent a shiver down Anad’s spine and made his skin crawl.

“Come on,” Anad said, forcing the sensation away. The building he’d seen the pink flash from wasn’t far, and there had to be a clue there for a way out. If not, well, the cliff and ocean beyond weren’t so far away. They’d probably be able to find a way down – one way or another. “We’re getting out of here,” he added, looking at what was left of his unit.

What had started as fifteen Regulars had been reduced to ten by the bloody battle with the monsters, and none of those who’d survived came away uninjured. Still, they met his look with a steely resolve, and a brief glimmer of hope he’d get them out of this alive.

Time to make good on protecting people.

Anad pulled lightly on the Trance, silver light like smoke wafting off his drawn blade, and jogged in the direction he’d seen the pink flash, and, it turned out, the source of the screaming. From the large chimney and the yard outside, it seemed to be some kind of forge, and as they rounded the corner, he caught a glimpse of black and white in the door.

“What are you doing here?” an uncomfortably familiar voice said.

“Kalesin,” Anad said flatly, a strange smell, like barbeque, tickling his nose. “We’re chasing the sorcerers. What’s this?” he asked, looking past the man standing in the doorway, and his stomach turned so violently at the sight he almost vomited immediately.

Three Mediators, Gevar one of them, held some poor fool with their leg inside the forge up past their thigh. The hoarse screams bounced off the walls as the person flailed with one arm, clawing and slapping at the Mediators holding them down. Their other arm, barely visible beyond the black and white, was a charred mess, bone visible through horrifically ruined flesh and muscle all the way up to the shoulder.

How are they even still awake?

“What… what are you doing?” Anad asked as one of the Regulars behind him emptied their stomach at the sight.

“Is that you Anad?” Gevar called, turning slightly to look at him without letting go of her victim – like she wasn’t just casually torturing somebody. “Kalesin, let him in. Are those Regulars I see behind him? Perfect, they can carry our guest with us while we go deeper into this enclave. And here I thought I’d have to leave you behind,” she said to whoever she was holding down, everything above their shoulders still hidden from Anad’s view.

But, as he looked at the scene, something about the clothes seemed familiar. A Clocksmith?

No… no it couldn’t be…

Anad pushed Kalesin aside – the man moved too slowly – and forced one foot in front of the other as he walked into the room, Gevar stepping aside to give Anad his first good look at her victim.

Tel looked at Anad, cheeks tear-stained and pain etched as clear as day on his face, another agonized cry tearing its way up his throat. Blood dribbled out of his mouth where he’d probably bitten his own tongue while screaming, and his chest rose and fell in an uneven panic. The left side of his face, closest to his ruined arm, was blistered and burnt, and something about his eye didn’t track the same way his right one did.

What… what did she do to you?

“Gevar… this… this is…” Anad started, but he couldn’t find the right words as he looked at his old friend held down on a table while his leg cooked in the forge.

Conflicting emotions hollowed out his chest. He’d… been so angry at Tel, blaming him for everything that had happened with the Mediators – and with Gevar – since the mountain enclave. But, looking at the scene in front of him, was it really Tel that was the problem?

Hell, was it even Anad?

Or – Anad’s eyes shifted to Gevar as his fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword – was she the problem all along? Had he just been blinded by a bit of kindness from somebody he respected? Her drive, her behaviour, he’d reasoned it away as pressure from above. As her need to prove she was just as capable as any male Mediator.

He’d been wrong. She wasn’t just driven… she was broken. Worse than the sorcerers they fought. Worse than the monsters out on the hill.

She wasn’t protecting the world; she was the thing the world needed protecting from.

“Stop this,” he finally said, voice hardening as silver light leaked from his eyes and wafted up from his sword. The pain from the Reaper faded under the thrum of the Trance filling his body, and even the constant headache got pushed aside by his growing anger.

This was not what Mediators were supposed to do.

Gevar let out a bored sigh and released her hand from where she’d had it pressed against Tel’s chest. “Pick him up,” she said with a small wave to the two other Mediators who’d been holding him down, even their faces pale at what they’d been doing. “I guess we should be moving on to the real reason we’re here anyway. Kalesin, follow along when you’ve finished up here.”

“Gevar, where are you going?” Anad asked the Mediator as she turned for another exit, following the chain hanging in the room. “We’re not finished here.”

“Don’t be long Kalesin,” Gevar said, completely ignoring Anad, and gestured for the two other Mediators to follow her, the barely conscious Tel dragging between them.

“Gevar,” Anad growled, but an urgent warning from Tory – ‘Mediator, look out!’ – had him spinning around just in time to see a blade wreathed in violet light swinging for his neck.

*

Shara slid to a stop as she entered the portal room and found a pair of Tailcoats scowling back at her from the other side of the ring of metal poles.

“Well, shit,” she cursed, looking at the long chain crossing the room. Her chain. She wouldn’t be able to fight two Tailcoats without the weapon. Hell, could she even fight them with the weapon?

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Looks like we got lucky and found a sorcerer to kill before Mediator Warren gets… here…” the Tailcoat on the left started, then stumbled, like his foot wasn’t where he expected it to be.

Did I just get a Tailcoat in their awkward teenage years? Shara couldn’t complain about the luck, and making a snap decision, dispelled the long chain to resummon it at her side. Then, while both of the Tailcoats seemed to still be distracted by the first one being clumsy – They’re underestimating me! – Shara darted to her right and hurled her chain fist out.

Without any rotation or much of a magic charge, there wasn’t a lot of oomph behind the toss, but it was enough to force the Tailcoat on the right to parry. His sword came up with a sharp and practiced movement to deflect the fist, and then he staggered back as the air popped in front of him with a small whomp.

Shara’s chain fist was already back at her side, and she skidded to a stop and spun on her lead foot, arm coming up above her head and her wrist spinning at the same time. The metal fist spiraled on the short chain, pink energy glowing stronger with each pass, and then she backhand-snapped the weapon out as she whirled around. The glowing pink fist shot between the Chronosteel pylons in the blink of an eye, but the clumsy Tailcoat still managed to reflexively get his sword up in time.

Having seen the effect it had on the other Tailcoat, he even braced his feet for the impact, and orange light flashed up his blade… then immediately vanished.

WHOMP the fist collided with the blade at the same time the Tailcoat’s eyes widened and lost their orange glow. And then he was in the air, sailing half the distance back to the door before hitting the ground in a skidding roll.

The pulses from the room are stealing their Trance, just like what happened back to Anad in the forest bunker. Damn, we should’ve lured all the Tailcoats down here to fight from the beginning!

With one Tailcoat on the ground and shaking his head, Shara bolted towards the other, fist spinning at her side and chaos energy flowing towards her feet.

Green ribbed with black lines pulsed in the man’s eyes, dirty light matching it on his blade, and he charged forward to meet her. No sooner had his momentum shifted in Shara’s direction, then the glow of the Trance vanished, and the man windmilled his arms to try and stay upright. One step, two steps, and he seemed to find his balance again, but his eyes widened when he looked straight ahead – because Shara wasn’t there anymore.

Up near the glass ceiling, and upside-down, Shara silently sprinted out to the side of the Tailcoat’s peripheral vision, then twisted in the air and arced her weapon around. Growing link by link, the fist swooped in on the man’s back before he even realized it was coming, and a solid WHOMP hurled him forward to smack off one of the metal pylons with a sickening crunch.

Whoops. I better be more careful not to damage one of those.

A quick glance between her feet through the glass under her showed the portal didn’t seem any bigger from the collision. No time to really spare on it, Shara dispelled the chain and got the fist to spinning beside her again while she took aim at the clumsy Tailcoat who’d gotten back to his feet. No glow surrounded his weapon or lit up his eyes, so either he’d figured out what was going on in the room and was going to try to time it, or he was still stunned from her earlier hit.

Probably the first. Well, he hasn’t seen all my tricks either, and I’m not going to wait for him to make the first move.

Still up in the air and distant from the Tailcoat, Shara hurled the fist at her opponent, who predictably sidestepped it instead of trying to parry it. No sooner had he stepped to his left then Shara pulsed her magic through the chain, and the fist pinballed off an invisible barrier, jerking at an impossible angle back to the left – and directly into the side of the man’s knee. Crack, the impact echoed through the room, the man somehow staying upright, and Shara ran power down her chain again. Whomp, the fist changed direction again and clipped his shoulder, but he still stayed standing despite the grimace of pain on his face. One pulse of power, then another, and she caught him in the hip with a whomp that tossed him sliding to the side.

But still he didn’t go down, and he didn’t attack. Was his plan to be a punching bag…?

No! Distraction!

Shara spun to her left then ducked back just in time as a black cane-sheath spun inches in front of her face, and the Tailcoat she’d thrown into one of the pylons leapt in the air with green and black light trailing his blade. The thrown cane bounced off the glass ceiling at the same time Shara backpedaled and dropped into a reverse somersault, upside-down in the air – the unconventional move the only thing that saved her from the Tailcoat’s seeking blade.

Schiiiing, the sword sparked green light off the glass ceiling before the Tailcoat somehow twisted in mid-air to hit the glass feet first and springboard himself back after her.

With the floor still ‘above’ her, Shara dove to the side while her chain whipped out to deflect the Tailcoat’s blade at the last second. Snapping her hand under her shoulder, she hit the air and rolled to her feet again, then swung her weapon in a wide spiral around her, just in time to bat aside a second flying cane.

From within the swirling cocoon of chains, Shara eyed the two Tailcoats standing patiently on the floor. Her only chance was to keep them at a distance – they were just too fast up close. They had to know that too – so why were they just standing there.

As if on cue, both men’s eyes lit up with light and they charged forward.

They’d learned to time their Trance between the pulses.

Shit.

*

Fully immersed in the Trance already, Anad’s blade of silver light came up to deflect the violet one seeking his throat, once, twice, three times as he quick-stepped back to set his feet and get the Regulars out of harm’s way.

Kalesin, black lines running through the violet light of his eyes, seemed all to eager to pursue, and barrelled after Anad with strong but controlled slashes. His technique was more akin to a traditional dueling sabre style, tight arm movements empowered with a snapping wrist that kept his blade constantly in a defensive posture. Anad’s thrusting counterattacks were quickly batted aside and the ribbon of light behind Kalesin’s constantly moving blade created a net-like illusion of the weapon’s position.

He’s good. Better than I’d like to admit.

Anad swung his sword up to parry a double-tap, downward slash for his skull, then snapped his wrist down and to the left to put his sword in line with the follow-up slash for his side. Lunge, counter and Kalesin swayed back at the waist, staying just an inch out of reach, then brought his sword back up and across. Pivoting on his lead foot, Anad swung himself around the upward arc of the blade, back to Kalesin, and reached up and over his left shoulder to stab down behind himself as he went.

The feel of metal on metal – Kaelsin managed to parry – and Anad was past, his weapon already back up in place to turn aside a snapping cut aimed for his wrist. Kalesin continued the push, preventing Anad from getting his feet under him again with a lunging feint towards Anad’s chest that quickly changed to a downward slash for his lead knee.

Anad yanked his leg back, pain blossoming where he wasn’t quite fast enough – the tip of Kalesin’s sword nicked his knee – and tossed out a quick thrust to buy himself breathing room. Kalesin’s blade banged Anad’s away, the man already recovering from his lunge, and Anad backed up another step. Low left parry, step back, high right parry, step back, overhead parry, step…

Anad’s back hit something, probably one of the tables in the room, and Kalesin’s eyes narrowed as he spotted the opportunity. The Mediator came in with a fury, smoky violet light trailing the barrage of snapping cuts aiming to overwhelm Anad, who worked his sword as fast as he could. With nowhere to go, though, he wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever, so he flooded power into his sword.

Thickening around his blade, Anad’s silver light went from smoky streamers to a mirror-like ribbon, creating a sudden screen between them as he brought his blade across his body to parry a horizonal slash to his right side. The moment their swords met, Anad pulled out his trump card, twisting at the waist and bringing his cane up and around through the silver screen.

Kalesin must’ve been one of the many Mediators who ignored the cane when they started fighting, and he paid for that mistake by taking the heavy blow on the side of his head, tossing him to the side to crash into the burning forge.

“Aaaaaargh,” the man screamed as his cane hand landed in the burning coals to catch his balance, and Anad charged in to finish the job.

*

Tel was barely conscious. In fact, there was no way he should’ve been conscious at all, not with how much the pain was muddling his brain. His entire left side was fiery agony, while the rest of his body felt uncomfortably numb.

Body wants to go into shock… but the chaos energy won’t let it.

The Tailcoat’s on either side of him were the only thing keeping him upright, toes dragging on the stone floor as they pulled him along. Sight only came through his right eye, which blinked slowly, head bobbing with each step of the Tailcoats, and he looked at the black and red line he was leaving behind him.

Was… was that the charcoal of his ruined leg shaving off as it dragged across the stone floor?

His foggy mind wanted him to vomit at the thought, but he didn’t even have enough control of his body to do that. His arm and leg were both completely ruined. Even Doctor Pain wouldn’t be able to fix him. His left eye wasn’t any better, just darkness greeting him during the slow blinks of his right. This was the end of him.

All he had left was pain.

Tel glanced at the feet of the female Tailcoat in front of him.

Pain and anger.

No, there was one other thing he had – the chaos energy forcing him to stay away and endure the agony. But what could he do with it? He didn’t have the strength left to pull through anything powerful enough to slow down Tailcoats and their Trance.

The only thing that could’ve done that was... dead. Just like he’d soon be.

Tel chuckled inside his own head as a very stupid idea popped into it. Since he was going to die anyway, why not?

Throwing open the door in his mind, he pushed what he needed into place… and began the process of opening the necessary portals in the one location the Tailcoats would never notice.

Inside himself.

*

Anad thrust his blade for Kalesin’s throat then disengaged his feint down and around the wild parry to drag the edge of his blade along the back of Kalesin’s exposed leg. Silver light flared while the blade parted the magical protection of the other Tailcoat’s tuxedo, and then the man’s flesh and muscle underneath. The Mediator let out a second groan of pain and his sword came back around in another uncontrolled slash.

Adopting the same dueling sabre style Kalesin was using, Anad swept his blade in close to his side, executing a circular parry by rotating his wrist down, back, and around to bat Kalesin’s sword aside before lunging in and bringing his own blade over and down across the other man’s chest.

Blood sprayed into the air from the long wound running from Kalesin’s collar bone to his hip, but it wasn’t over yet. Recovering forward while the drops of crimson still hung in the air, Anad cocked his wrist, then stood and drove the tip into Kalesin’s gut, up behind his ribs, and out through his shoulder.

The other Mediator gasped, blood flecking his lips, and tried to take another swing at Anad while his sword was sheathed in the man’s chest.

Anad’s cane crunched into Kalesin’s sword hand without looking, and he met the man’s eyes. Then, without a word, he stepped back and ripped his sword straight out of the other man’s chest. The Trance-filled blade sliced through organs, ribs, and flesh like they weren’t even there, and blood immediately overwhelmed the magic of the tuxedo.

It had all happened so quickly, Anad was already three steps back as the initial spray of blood hit the forge floor, and Kalesin’s body thumped to follow a few seconds later.

“M… Mediator…?” Tory asked, crimson pooling like a lake around Kalesin’s prone form, the man twitching and shuddering as his life bled out. “Should you have done… that?”

Anad flicked his blade to remove any blood that had managed to hang on, then turned to the wide-eyed Regular’s looking at him through the forge door.

“He would’ve killed me and then you, just for being with me. I’m sorry I got you into this,” Anad said. “It might be best if you left and went to find another Mediator’s unit to join.”

Some of the Regular’s looked from one another, but it was Tory who spoke again. “And you? What are you going to do?”

Anad looked back towards the exit that led down into the ground, just now noticing Shara’s magic chain was gone.

“I’m going after Gevar,” Anad said.

“You don’t have to do that,” Tory said. “This… whole mission was a massive failure. Even if she does make it back, there won’t be anything there for her. Or is it about that Tink they had?”

“This isn’t what the Mediators are supposed to be,” Anad said quietly, then said more loudly. “Good luck, Tory. It was nice knowing you.”

Then, without looking back, Anad charged down the steps into the tunnel after Gevar.

It was time their relationship had some closure.

*

Shara continued her retreat around the room, chain whipping out and ricocheting to try and slow the two Trance-infused Tailcoats down. The unpredictability of her weapon and her ability to fight in three dimensions were the only things keeping her alive. Oh, and the pulses that bought her some breathing room every few seconds.

Pity the damn Tailcoats had figured out the timing of it, and pushed absurdly hard to catch her before the next one came. Plus, even if she wanted to, it didn’t look like they were going to let her leave.

Green and orange light flashed as the two Tailcoats darted in, criss-crossing as they went, then both men leapt into the air. Shara’s weapon spiraled outward as she retreated, the fist pinballing as it went to weave a net of sawing chains.

That should slow them…

Both men found footholds on the chain and used it to change their trajectory in the air, leaping from one link to another back-and-forth lightning fast. Trailing green and orange light formed X’s in Shara’s vision, and just like that they were only a leap or two away from reaching her, using her own weapon as terrain.

Glowing eyes locked on her as the men drew back their blades and crossed her field of vision once more to make a final leap for the chains and put them in striking range. With that, they’d have her, their speed far too much to keep up with.

Except Shara dispelled her chains with a thought, and the two men soared in opposite directions with surprised looks on their faces.

Before either even made it back to the ground, Shara charged left, fist spinning in a tight circle beside her, then launched the weapon forward. Orange light spun in the air, like the man had eyes in the back of his head, and he brought his sword around to intercept Shara’s metal fist. Still, the charged whomp sent him hurtling like a falling meteor into the ground.

He hit the stone floor awkwardly back first, the impact knocking the wind out of him despite the protection of his tuxedo before he bounced and rolled to crash into the wall. With his knee, hip, and shoulder already hurting from her earlier blows, he was slow to get to his feet, barely on his knees when Shara’s fist came swinging in from his left side.

Fully glowing pink from several rotations, the fist him the man like a wrecking ball, caving the side of his chest around the impact site, and slammed him to the side. Orange light flashed then vanished, a pulse stealing his Trance, as the man hit the wall and then skidded along it around the curvature of the room before finally losing enough momentum to hit the floor on the opposite side.

Shara immediately dispelled her chain and then reformed it at her side, flicking her wrist to get the fist rotating and building up a charge, while she turned her attention to the last Tailcoat standing near the exit.

One down, one to go.

She met the man’s eyes as green light flooded them again, and prepared for his predictable charge. Halfway across the room, even with his speed, she should be able to dodge and counter. With just one of him, as long as she was smart and kept her distance, she could do this. She could win!

…except he didn’t move. He just stood there beside the door until a pulse came along and stole the Trance from him. The second passed and his eyes glowed green again, but still he didn’t attack.

What is he waiting for?

Shara’s stomach dropped when she got her answer – three more Tailcoats strolling into the room, Anad’s girlfriend in the lead.

Wonderful.

But it was the dragging body between the two Tailcoats in the back that stole her attention, left arm and leg a blackened, charred mess. The left side of his face was blistered and burned almost to the point she couldn’t recognize him.

Almost.

“Tel…” she whispered, guilt, devastation, and anger warring in her chest.

Anger won out, and she turned her hate on Anad’s girlfriend, but the woman wasn’t even looking at her.

No, she had her eyes on the metal pylons, and a wide smile creased her face as she began to laugh.

“Magnificent,” the Tailcoat shouted.