by John Mangold
Entering the darkened chamber first, mostly because none in the party cared to do so, Maluem cast a glow spell on the walls to illuminate the cell. The spell took effect on the section of the wall closest to her, racing around the curving walls to detail a round chamber with a concave center where a lone unmoving form lay curled on top of a poorly stuffed mattress. Yet, when the illumination reached the motionless body, the light appeared to encounter an unseen barrier, vanishing to leave the chamber flooded by darkness once more.
“So Much for Bocor trickery,” Thayne blurted out from behind her. “Why not let the philistine put a reliable tool to the task?”
As he said this, he activated his mechanical torch, illuminating the center of the room with the device’s cold light. The beam flowed across the figure they had only glimpsed before. It was Cruentus, alright. The glistening synthetic muscles and shock white hair betrayed her identity immediately. However, despite their boisterous entry and indiscriminate use of light, her body had not stirred an inch. This, coupled with her flesh's cadaverous pallor, led Maluem to fear the woman had already expired.
In an impulsive moment, Maluem lurched forward, approaching the still form, but Thayne put forth a hand to restrain her. The scathing glare he received for his trouble was more than enough to cause him to quickly draw his hand back. Still, Thayne moved his body to block Maluem’s best avenue of approach.
“Dove, that woman is a mindless murderer. For all we know, she might be playacting, trying to lure us in for an easy kill. If that does not deter you, keep in mind that she has been caged for quite a few years, she may not react well to the sudden appearance of visitors. Just keep that in mind before you blindly rush to her side.”
“She may be expiring as we debate this-” Maluem replied before being cut off.
“Then use one of your tricks to awake her from here,” Thayne suggested. “Surely, you have some sort of ‘spell’ that can rouse a demon without touching it.”
“Yes, I think I have a ‘trick’ or two that would achieve that goal,” Maluem replied, stepping around Thayne as she spoke.
Repeating the steps Maluem had sketched out in Thayne’s apartment, Maluem prepared the combination Force/Healing Spell. However, this time she chose a force spell that would produce a weak, focused blast, striking only her desired target. Preparing herself for the backlash that would surely come, Maluem combined the now scorched icons and released the combined spell. The effects flew straight and true, flowing to the prone woman’s form like an arrow, yet when they struck, there was no backlash at all. Maluem felt nothing to indicate her spells had any impact whatsoever. They simply vanished, much as the glow spell had.
“Something is not right,” Maluem muttered. “I felt no nausea, as I should have.”
“Wait, you actually want to feel nauseous?” Thayne asked. “The miserable stench in here is not enough for you?”
“Maybe you are overcoming the backlash, adjusting for it as you cast,” suggested Shelia, ignoring Thayne’s jest entirely.
“No, as much as I wish that were so,” Maluem replied. “I fear my spell had no effect like something canceled it out before it could fulfill its intent. It might be some mechanism built into this chamber, a spell dampener to preclude a mystical rescue of any would-be tenants. I fear the only way I can be certain my spell is working is through direct contact with my patient.”
“Maluem, remember what I said,” Thayne objected once more. “This could end very painfully for you.”
“I assure you it will, one way or the other,” Maluem replied as she stepped toward the center of the room. “But I have no choice. Not if we want to get this woman out of here while she still draws breath.”
The knowledge of the immanent unpleasantness was only a portion of what weighed on Maluem’s mind as she stepped forward. There was something else that troubled her, a tension that had built up within her ever since she crossed the threshold of the imprisoning chamber, becoming more acute as she closed with Cruentus. Now, every step forward took tremendous effort as the pressure within built exponentially.
Maluem detected a similar sensation when she witnessed the fight in the coliseum, but it was very vague then, very distant. It was a feeling of contact with another, but not as mundane as a brush of her skin. This was far more intimate, closely resembling the wretched sensations of healing. It was as though her very essence was brushing against that of another, one whose soul was scarred and slick with blood. This sensation grew in intensity with every step until it felt more real than any physical contact she ever had.
As she drew close to Cruentus, Maluem was struck once more by the woman’s appearance. She was far more feral up close than she had appeared from the Coliseum viewing chamber. Drawing yet closer, she could see that Cruentus’ mouth hung open as she slept, revealing her teeth within. Her canine teeth had been replaced with metallic versions that were serrated, similar to those of a predator demon. But what was more remarkable was that the teeth directly behind these were similarly modified to near-identical shape and size. The woman had six surgical steel canines, four above and two below, each of which would make any carnivorous beast sick with envy.
Her shoulders and arms were incredible contrivances of synthetic muscle and steel, the likes of which Maluem had never seen before. Her forearms were even more impressive, each made up of wondrously worked metals with portals crafted into them along their length to lighten the metal and display the intricate piston mechanisms within. Both ended in mighty mechanical fists that her heavily worn gloves completely concealed, save her metallic knuckles. It was little wonder the woman possessed such immense strength.
As Maluem prepared to lay her hands upon the woman, she could make out a soft yet distinct clicking noise, like those of a hidden pocket watch. Yet the sounds were not rhythmic, creating and breaking their own cadence with no sign of a pattern. It took Maluem several pulses to realize that the muffled clicking sounds were emanating from Cruentus’s eyes.
“Her clockwork ocular devices must be focusing and refocusing as she sleeps,” Maluem marveled. With a shake of her head, she reminded herself why she was here and of the fact that this astonishing feat of craftsmanship could cease its functioning at any moment.
As Maluem’s hands drew close to the woman’s skin, what little there was to find, she began to recite the healing spell stopping just shy of the activation point. The drain of casting was now so intense upon her that she knew she would not be able to sustain the spell for long, nor be sure her efforts would have any effect. This was beyond strange; she had never had this much difficulty drawing power, not even when she was at her weakest. She could only surmise that this was yet another safety mechanism of the prison cell they were in.
Yet there was no time to ponder this as the drain would certainly reduce her spell to a meaningless gesture if she did not act immediately. Without any further hesitation, she thrust her hands upon Cruentus’ pale face as she murmured the activation incantation.
Total blackness, intense pain, the tortured wail of a woman in severe agony, and then the bleary view of three figures crouching over her. These were all the memories Maluem retained of her attempt to heal Cruentus. The last of which was the scene that greeted her as she regained consciousness. She lifted her head from the floor to find herself some three feet from the still sleeping woman, oblivious to all around her.
At first glance, it appeared Maluem had never touched the woman until she noticed the thick layer of frost coating every surface of the surrounding chamber. Maluem realized that she must have unconsciously pulled every bit of energy from the surrounding air, turning the cell into an icebox in the process. But where had all of that energy gone? Her mind was frantically piecing this together when Thayne and her Acolytes joined her.
“If they didn’t know we were here before, they certainly do now,” Thayne groused, a thick puff of steam filling the air with his words. “What the kulk was that, Dove? Did she electrocute you? And why is it freezin
g in here all of a sudden?”
“Maluem, are you alright?” Shelia spoke over Thayne. “I never heard you scream like that before. I thought Cruentus had killed you!”
“We all did,” Torrez added. “It was everything I could do to keep Thayne from blowing the woman’s head off. What just happened? I know you detest physical contact, but reacting like that? Did your condition suddenly get worse?”
“No, it’s not that,” Maluem managed before a fit of coughs overcame her. While regaining her feet, she became aware of maddening howls echoing down the passage they had left behind. It appeared her outcry had risen a bit of a fuss in the nearby cells. From the nature of many of those cries, she shuddered to imagine what horrors were held captive nearby.
“Well, then what?” Thayne demanded. “If your mindless phobias didn’t cause that ear-splitting screech, what did?”
“They are not mindless, nor are they at work here,” Maluem retorted with a glare. “That woman is a spell siphon of some sort. She is like an ever-thirsting devourer of all things magical. When I touched her, I could feel all the mystical energy within me flow into her, leeching my stores dry, then applying me as a conduit, drawing in still more energy from Azbel herself, feeding an insatiable hunger. I have never felt anything so psychically…painful.”
“Wonderful,” Thayne groused once more. “So, in addition to Cruentus being a psychotic killing machine, now she is a Bocor leech. Now how do we get her out of here and, more to the point, why?”
“Hold on, maybe I can do something,” Torrez chimed in as he edged towards the woman still unconscious on the floor. “When Cruentus was in the gladiator pit, did she seem to be acting strangely to any of you?”
“By strangely, I assume you mean other than as a blood-drunk fiend?” Thayne replied.
“I mean as though she was being controlled by another,” Torrez replied as he reached out apprehensively to touch the synthetic muscles of the comatose woman’s shoulder. When a brief caress of his fingertips brought no ill effects, Torrez put his full weight behind his effort, rolling Cruentus onto her chest, exposing her back to their view.
“Just as I suspected,” Torrez said with a satisfied grin as he pointed to a small steel box attached to the base of Cruentus’ neck. “An N.C.U. is attached to her, see? Assassins are always a mixed bag, or so I have heard. It is believed that…our enemy…treats each one like a prototype, never the same combination of features twice, and often with untested devices thrown into the mix. However, they do favor one selection: the Nanite System. This is a complex array of microscopic, rune driven automatons that are injected into the host’s circulatory system to speed healing and vastly increase performance.”
“That is as fascinating as it is alarming,” Maluem put in at his pause. “But precisely what does that have to do with Cruentus’s current state?”
“Well,” Torrez explained, “Those tiny automatons can manipulate the Assassin’s state of mind, shifting them from a controllable, placid state to one of blinding rage in the span of a micro. It is an extremely effective way to control a horribly potent weapon like her. As you can imagine, we do not possess their control mechanisms, so a patch job was created locally in the form of a Nanite Control Unit. This way, they can be assured she will fight on cue yet keep her from shattering any prison cell they put her in.
“I am pretty sure I can remove the device. It does not look to be safeguarded in any meaningful way. Once I pop it loose, Cruentus’s internal systems should stabilize, allowing her to regain consciousness.”
“Hold on a micro Torrez,” Thayne spoke up as Torrez began adjusting his rings. “How do we know what she will do once you remove that thing? Won’t she just revert back to the controls of her former masters, the ones that made her like this?”
“I doubt it,” Torrez replied. “From what I remember, Santilis Military Command claimed to have destroyed the enemy’s Assassin factory last year. There shouldn’t be any commands coming from there anymore.”
“Shouldn’t be,” Thayne replied after a bark of laughter. “Since when did you start believing Military Press Releases?”
A fresh peel of screams and howls echoed down the hall behind them, reminding them that time was fleeting.
“I don’t think we have a choice at this point,” Torrez replied. “We either try to remove this device and bring her around or leave her and abort our little mission.”
“Couldn’t we just carry her?” Shelia suggested.
“Somehow, I don’t think that would sit well with the guards up above,” Maluem replied. “Unless you think you can put the entire coliseum of workers to sleep long enough for the three of you to pass. Nor can we carry her through the flooded tunnels below. Her mystical siphoning traits would make the creation of a boat impossible, so we would have to swim with her and, although this may be a bit of an assumption, I don’t think she will float terribly well.”
“My vote is still to leave her here,” Thayne put in. “After what this skrite has done, she deserves all she gets.”
“Remove the device, Torrez,” Maluem commanded as she stared straight at Thayne. “We can debate the wisdom of my orders at another time if I choose to allow its discussion.”
Torrez immediately turned his attention back to Cruentus. Moving his fingers close to the box on Cruentus’s neck, Maluem could see a faint glow on his fingertips appear, then flicker out. Cruentus’s innate abilities were leaching the effectiveness of even his runes. With a shake of his head, Torrez retracted his fingers and reset his rings.
“I will have to do this manually,” Torrez said with a grumble.
Producing an oily bundle of tools from his jacket, Torrez began ‘operating’ on the mechanism with slight taps and scrapes at first, evolving into loud gouging and hammer strikes as the pulses passed. After a few tense moments, he raised back from her prone body, the device resting neatly in his hands. As he presented it, Torrez turned the device over to reveal the casing’s split backside, betraying the workings within. Once Maluem caught a glimpse of this, she snatched the device from his grasp and pried the breach wide, providing a better view.
The device's innards were a dizzying maze of wafer-like boards and cylinders, all connected with silver lines as thin as a spider’s webbing. But what was most fascinating were the patterns etched into the surfaces of the wafer boards. These details appeared to be formed randomly on close inspection, running haphazardly from one electrical device to another. However, once viewed at a distance, it was apparent that their paths had been meticulously planned to form a mindboggling array of runes in a quicksilver script.
“This is astounding. I have never seen the like!” Maluem exclaimed.
“That makes sense, given your home country,” Torrez responded.
“What my husband means to say,” Shelia put in, expecting Maluem to be insulted, “Is that I am sure devices like this are rare where you come from.”
“There are no such devices where I come from,” Maluem replied. “Are all mechanical devices manufactured in this fashion?”
“Where are you from, Dove, Camilos?” Thayne scoffed. “Of course, they are! That is the standard pattern for all mechanical devices. By law, everything mechanical in all of Santilis is controlled by circuits created to that template.”
“Who have you been talking to, Thayne? I never knew you had been indoctrinated as a Neophyte,” Torrez exclaimed.
“Well…um…that is, I am sure you mentioned it. Before you left, I think…” Thayne stammered, stepping a bit back from Torrez.
“No, I am certain I never mentioned the laws of ‘Rune Circuit Construction’ before, Thayne,” Torrez replied. “That is a closely guarded secret of the Royal Auspex. Where did you learn it?”
“Wait,” Maluem interjected into their argument. “Torrez, are you saying he is correct? Are these runes present in all mechanical devices, even those ‘enhancements’ people insert into their bodies?”
“All devices must contain that array of r
unes, particularly enhancements,” Torrez replied while eyeing Thayne as though he was a stranger. “As Thayne inexplicably knows, it is the law every Auspex and Neophyte alike must follow. Why?”
“Did you never try to discern what the meanings of these runes are?” Maluem asked.
“They are the required elements in all devices, and in turn, the devices work as advertised. What more do we need to know, Dove?” Thayne replied for Torrez.
“This is preposterous!” Maluem shouted. “How can you depend upon devices you barely understand, particularly when bonding them with your flesh? How can you possibly know what effect they may be having on you, what purpose they might serve of which you are unaware? That is if the ferd-crafted things work in the first place, which, from my experience, seems to be a rare occurrence!”
“Maluem, that is the most paranoid thing I have ever heard,” Torrez began after a long pause. “I understand you come from a backwater nation, but that is no reason to fear devices simply designed to help-”
“Irrational, you say?” Maluem interrupted. “Then answer me this, why did you both have those purportedly essential devices surgically removed when you crossed the border into Enox?”
“Because they were malfunctioning, and…” Torrez began, then suddenly ran out of steam.
As Torrez trailed off, Maluem placed her hand across the open side of the now broken mechanism. With a soft mutter, she once again cast her Clarity Spell. The reaction was immediate yet subtle. Even in the darkened light of the chamber, the results were difficult to see. Still, as they focused their eyes intently on the device once more, a faint braid of spell tendrils could be seen running off into the darkness of the cell, disappearing into a sturdy wall.
“Because you were being tracked?” Maluem finished for him. “Would this denote a dual purpose in these constructions?”
“That doesn’t prove anything, Dove,” Thayne protested. “That was a controlling device for a Gladiator slave. Naturally, it would have tracking elements built into it.”