Accounts Payable

by Blaise Corvin

  Rage, shame, and confusion ran up and down my back. I had never been so thankful for floating time, or the ways the ability had changed, allowing me to still feel emotion while not being ruled by it—giving me energy instead of being a liability. The many eyes around me, drilling into me made me feel self-conscious, like I was a child again.

  Part of me still hated myself. Even after all this time, I felt guilty. A part of me also felt...happy to talk to Lisa again. She really had taught me how to fight. When I’d been young, I hadn’t even realized how she’d been hurting me until I’d confided in Arren, and my friend been horrified. It had actually been Arren who’d told the rest of the Jackals about what Lisa had been doing in private.

  I’d had dreams about her for years, and I’d felt disgusted with myself for the guilt that plagued me about Lisa’s punishment. At that time, she’d cut me with words, told me that I was useless, and a traitor. Just like now, enough truth had always been mixed with the lies that it had been hard to argue against.

  Then my eyes snapped up and I saw Lisa’s self-satisfied little smile. Rot this, I thought. Over ten years had passed, and things had changed. My sense of justice screamed to be let loose. Anger consumed the fear and shame inside of me, and I snapped, feeling all the words I wished I’d had the strength to say while young pushing to come out, and not in some nervous squeak, either.

  No, I had grown. I was Nora Hazard, The Hazard, Hazardous Nora, an orb-Bonded warrior. The streets of Bittertown might be where I was from, but I was more than that now. It would take a lot more than Lisa Dalone’s mean words to break me now, or to stop me from being the woman I’d decided to be, the woman Arren had always believed I was.

  “You sick, murderous bitch. How dare you even mention family when you destroyed mine, forcing me onto the street in the first place. I don’t know if it was you or one of your disgusting friends who had my father arrested, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve already killed most of you. You are scum. I used to feel guilty about you being caught for what you were doing with me, but if we had not been in a street gang, you would have gone to prison, not house arrest.”

  I ground my teeth, and the words continued to spill out, truth ringing off the cobblestones. “I was only a child, you delusional, rotting...cultist! You talk about our time together now in such a creepy way, as if I were an ex-lover! Listen to yourself, hell, look at yourself! You are surrounded by people wearing dark bed sheets! You command demons, true-demons! I hurt you? You made me question whether I liked men or women for years!” My voice broke, and memories of that time exploded, like they’d been pushed down before. The truth was that if not for Arren, I would have kept hurting myself.

  Pain had been a constant companion on the street. Hurting myself had been a way for me to feel...peace for a while.

  The Jackals’ leaders had cast Lisa down, but she’d been too important and too good of a fighter to do more than just shun her. Then I’d been left mostly on my own. If not for my friends, I might not have survived. Thinking about them, I realized that all three of them were dead now. I hadn’t been able to save the girls who’d saved me.

  My voice spit venom, my veins felt like ice. “Rot you, Lisa. You aren’t even special, just another selfish nobody from a small town with delusions of grandeur and no real talents other than hurting people. You have no friends, no love, and no future. You command fear, not respect, and you disgust me.”

  Lisa’s eyes bulged and she slowly uncrossed her arms. “So that is how it’s going to be, is it?”

  “Rot off in pieces, Pretender. It’s easy to be the king monster among rats. I’m not a little girl you can manipulate or bully anymore. And I am not a Jackal or under your control in any way, so you can’t use that against me either! You are a perverted, narcissistic bully, and you aren’t worth anything without borrowing power from a fucking dark god that anyone with any sense or decency would have no association with.” I was proud of that last line; it felt like something Jessica would have said.

  Lisa shook out her arms, moving backwards slowly. I should have pressed the attack all this time instead of talking, but in the dark, surrounded by fire and destruction, with a crowd of people staring at us, I’d been swept up in the moment. I was still ready for anything, though.

  After removing her shawl, Lisa nodded. “I see you’ve grown a tongue over all these years, that is true. It is also a fact that we will probably never see eye to eye. Pity. I’d hoped that even old and broken, our past friendship would be enough for us to come to an understanding. As usual, I guess I am too honest and too caring, it always backfires on me when I try to help people who refuse to grow. Now this is obviously heading to a fight, so I will say this—do not believe your own hype, ‘Hazardous Nora.’ I am a fourth-rank Duanna orb-Bonded, and you have about as much chance defeating me as you would have ten years ago.”

  Her response didn’t surprise me. I hadn’t expected Lisa to apologize, or admit she’d done any wrong, even in the middle of a burning city. In Lisa’s world, Lisa could never be wrong. “Come at me, Pretender!” I hissed. “You might find me harder to bully now that I’m a foot taller. After I cut your lying head off, I’m going to feed it to a demon in a cage. Or maybe I’ll just leave you in pieces like I did Gretch and Hesst.”

  Lisa’s eye twitched, but she didn’t say anything. We stared at each other in silence, and I used the time to further focus my senses, hyper-aware of everything around me. The other cultists had cautiously moved away from the square. The Guard had retreated down the streets on the opposite side. With Vibration, I could hear their whispers.

  “What do you think they’re doing?”

  “I don’t know, don’t care. We have no orders, we’re on our own, and we can do more good out there than staying here. Monsters and other cultists attacking the city, and we can reinforce one of the platoons that are fighting them. Chasing these nutters around at this point would just tire us out and maybe lead into an ambush—it’s smarter to regroup. Besides, we’d have to go right through that square to get to the ones running away. Anything that scares crazies with true-demons for pets is something I don’t want to be anywhere near without serious backup.”

  “You think those two are powerful? Like, is this going to be a high-level ‘Bonded or mage duel?”

  “Probably. Didn’t you see the beat-up one in dark armor come out of the portal and blow a few of them apart? Let’s hope she’s on our side, otherwise, let’s hope they kill each other.”

  “Makes sense. We really should try to get more intel, though.”

  “Agreed, Sergeant. Form up the squads and we will head toward the shield over the palace. Even if nothing is still coming in or out, we are bound to find other Guard there. Let’s keep this withdrawal quiet, though. We were holding our own back there with Lanslo and Piing, but that fight didn’t last long, and the short-haired woman didn’t move or even seem worried. I had a bad feeling about this one from the start.”

  I tuned out the Guard after I’d gotten a basic grasp of the situation. Across the square, Lisa stood in a deceptively relaxed stance. We both continued to stare at each other, barely blinking. I knew she was ready to spring—this was always how she stood before a serious fight. She only wore one visible weapon, a short sword, and her hands weren’t anywhere near it. Strange.

  It was difficult without knowing what kind of weapons she’d use, but I imagined how the fight would play out in my head. Lisa was an incredibly dangerous enemy, the best fighter I’d ever sparred against, and maybe the most talented I’d ever met. I knew now that I’d been able to learn so fast, keep up, and eventually fight on her level in the past due to my natural adomopathy, but Lisa had no such ability. She was just that good.

  The woman was delusional, but also ruthless, skilled, and smart. Part of me was still hurting, and part was scared, but my blood boiled. Even if she were lying about being fourth rank, she was obviously orb-Bonded now. She was probably telling the truth about having a ‘Duanna orb, too—she had
no reason to lie.

  Lisa didn’t know I was bonded with a Duanna orb, but maybe she’d guessed. I wondered if she’d lied about hers to throw me off. Luckily, my service in the Tolstey military had given me a good understanding of most common Dolos orb abilities, and I recalled most of what Muffin had shared with me about Duanna orb abilities.

  Dozens, hundreds, thousands of abilities and scenarios ran through my head. I seethed with anger, and I used it to fuel my unique new floating time. Lisa had always been faster than me in the past, but now I had ‘Bonded abilities like Strength, Speed, Toughness, and Heightened Reflexes.

  Luckily, all of my Endurance abilities added together had kept me going this far, but I was bone-weary. I probably only had one more use of Pewpew before suffering serious problems. My Element: Air abilities had taken a lot out of me too, but from a different source, and I still had some magic power left. I was wounded, beat up, and exhausted. Lisa looked mussed, and had someone else’s blood on her, but she was still in much better condition than me.

  I knew that most of my enchanted gear wasn’t working anymore after spending time in Brecken. On the other hand, my armor was somehow still activated, and felt...energized, strong. Maybe it had drawn power from Brecken, the hell world. That wasn’t something I really had time to think about, but was a disturbing hunch. There wasn’t any other way I could come up with how the armor hadn’t reverted into a tunic, though.

  Lisa’s eyes grew distant, and I knew she was probably falling deeper into her own version of floating time. This was going to be a hard fight, maybe the hardest I’d ever had. Eggshell back in Soron would probably be like a kitten compared to Lisa.

  None of the flying demons unleashed on the city were still coming anywhere near...until one did. A true-demon near-silently winged toward me from behind. Lisa’s eyes didn’t move up, and she didn’t give any other indication that the thing was coming, either. You sneaky… I thought. I waited until the last moment before I explosively air skated to the side, gathering and delivering an air drill into the side of the demon’s head as it flashed back.

  Lisa attacked.

  She sprang forward, pale purple light covering her body, creating armor. One hand rose, and bolts of rapid-fire energy shot forward.

  I air-jumped straight up, dodging the barrage, but Lisa followed me up, purple energy blades forming in her hands. She spun like a whirlwind, blades flashing at different parts of my body.

  My Flight power saved me. I darted straight back, parrying a couple strikes and stabbing with a Vibration-enhanced Eneus. Lisa was obviously surprised by how agile I was in the air, but still managed to knock my spear’s point off-line. I scored a hit, but felt hollow surprise through floating time as it punched through her glowing armor but still skittered off her skin.

  Lisa extended a hand down and her glowing sword became a line connecting her to the ground. She hauled on it, touched down, and gracefully spun like she was on ice. This time I could see the purple glow under her boots. Her sword reappeared in her hand.

  Our first deadly exchange had told me a lot. Unfortunately, it had probably communicated just as much to her. We were both inhumanly strong and fast, and probably had a good grasp of our respective agilities now. She was stronger than me, but I was matching her in my armor. Her armor was obviously very, very good too. Even a glancing stab with Eneus would easily penetrate the very best mundane defenses.

  Should I fly? I asked myself, but decided not to. She had ranged attacks, and might have more than what I’d seen. If she really does have a Duanna Orb, she must have spent some points in Energy Blasts, I thought. If I lived through this, Muffin was going to be insufferable.

  I did have ranged options, but not many. I had a limited number of air drills I could throw, and she’d already dodged one at close range. If I were up in the air, she could use buildings as cover and might be able to do more damage than I could. I could move much faster through sky with Flight over time, but I could react a hell of a lot faster on land.

  As I floated back down to the ground, we studied each other again. Neither of us said anything. If we’d been characters in one of the old books I’d read as a girl, we’d be bragging, telling each other our abilities. This was Lisa Dalone, though. I didn’t plan to give her any handicaps—this was a fight to the death. If she suddenly decided to take a nap, I’d be more than happy to kill her in her sleep.

  I doubted she was going to help me out, though. In fact, the only reason she hadn’t had her cultists attack me earlier was because she’d figured it would be useless, or had wanted to deal with me herself.

  Lisa suddenly moved again, pouncing forward, half sliding to close the distance. Her magic swords flashed, and I parried. I moved in a smooth circle, keeping her at bay with Eneus, trying to score a solid stab. She always managed to turn each blow just enough to skitter off her defenses. If she was surprised that Eneus’ shaft could stop her return strikes without being cut, she didn’t show it.

  She rattled off a rapid series of strikes meant to trap my spear and tried to close with me where the longer weapon would be useless. I darted back, dipping Eneus’ point into the ground to collapse the handle, and counterattacked with a couple quick, Vibration-enhanced slashes. Lisa grunted in surprise, blocking one, but dodged the second a little too slow. The strike cut through her glowing shoulder armor, Eneus’ point grazing her shoulder. On a normal person, the blade would have cut down to the bone, but the point only opened a shallow wound on Lisa. She began to bleed.

  The powerful woman growled and one of her swords extended before she flailed it in a wide circle. I flipped up and backward to avoid it, twisting in the air to face my enemy. I charged an air drill and aimed it at her head but her sword flashed up, knocking the attack aside. My air drill made a small crater in a cobblestone as Lisa pivoted to a ready stance.

  I landed and extended Eneus back to normal size with a flick of the wrist. Now that I was more deeply connected with the spear, I didn’t need to give verbal commands anymore.

  To one side, a small tree lay in pieces, a glowing cut from Lisa’s energy whip on its stone planter. Red lightning crashed overhead, giving all the trees planted around the city square a sickly cast.

  I air skated forward. Eneus flicked out as I attempted to stab Lisa through the neck, but she turned her head, dodging with minimal effort. I immediately darted back and put as much sideways pressure on the spear as I could. The Vibration-empowered blade cut through Lisa’s energy armor and nicked her neck. The wound wasn’t deep, but I’d gotten her again. She snarled at me.

  Thunder roared overhead. Combat rang and faint screams echoed in the distance. After another few seconds of tension, Lisa and I sprang forward again, weapons flashing, testing each other’s defenses. I was trying my hardest to kill the woman who had introduced me to a new life, had built me up, and had almost destroyed me.

  Change

  The first few minutes of my fight with Lisa were strategic, analytical. Lisa was the strongest, smartest, most ruthless opponent I’d ever fought since becoming orb-Bonded. I had no doubt that if she were to somehow go back in time to Benjamin’s family farm, she would have given the Maroon String nightmares.

  This was also my first time since being orb-Bonded that I’d fought anyone who really knew about me or my limits. I could tell that Lisa was aware that when she demonstrated new techniques or abilities, I’d learn from them, maybe even adopt them. As a result, she was fighting savagely and precisely, but conservatively.

  I was under no such limitation, but I couldn’t put her down. She moved like an eel, and I couldn’t get a solid hit on her. I quickly came to believe she was at least one ‘Bonded rank higher than me. For the moment, we were fighting fairly evenly, but after years of experience with life-and-death struggles, I was sure she hadn’t laid everything on the line yet.

  The fight progressed down several streets, and I used the buildings as springboards, evading Lisa’s attacks, repositioning myself, and changing the len
gth of my spear to strike from multiple distances. I fired air drills at her whenever I saw an opening, more to keep her on her toes than anything else. Even if I hit her squarely with an air drill, I wasn’t sure if it would be strong enough to penetrate both her armor and her skin.

  She had to have more than one rank of Toughness. Because of this, she basically had two layers of armor—the energy covering her and her body itself.

  Her mobility and flexibility were also great. She could make simple objects out of energy in her hands, and repair holes in her armor. Her weapons, and even her armor itself could change shape into ropes, chains, spears, and other weapons. If she threw anything at me, the energy maintained its shape for a few seconds before disappearing. Based on my own experiences and knowledge of Dolos and Duanna orbs, I believed she had a modular Duanna orb like mine. I had a hunch she’d taken Energy Blasts so she could maintain her energy constructs away from her body.

  Lisa’s floating time focus grew deeper, as did mine. I learned and adapted, whipping Eneus around by the sash, using the spear like a long-range bludgeon. A normal spear would not have been very dangerous this way, but Eneus hit like a weighed-down yukka, making flashes of Vibration energy on impact—shattering stone and wood alike.

  I took to the air, stabbing down rapidly, keeping Lisa on the defensive. She spun, sliding across the ground faster than a normal person could run, but I followed, Eneus trained on her chest. Hitting her was hard enough, but I needed a solid blow to do any kind of serious damage. The smaller cuts I’d managed to land on her were already closing. She must have had some kind of low-level regeneration ability like I did.