‘I saw it,’ Nava replied. ‘It’s big. Two metres tall at least with long limbs. It moves on its toes. Its hands had two long fingers and two, well, thumbs. Its head is big. Not a large face with few features; no visible nose, just a couple of holes, and thin lips. Its eyes were pale blue on black with small, slitted pupils. Oh, and it’s blue. Various shades of blue all over its body. No clothing that I could see.’
‘Just like the statues and carvings then.’
‘Yes, but they don’t convey the way it stared at me. That thing wants me dead.’ Nava gave a small shrug. ‘It’s mutual, obviously.’
235/5/24.
As Courtney settled into her seat for homeroom, she slotted her ketcom and was immediately greeted by a display showing the expected attendance figures for every class in the school. Nodding, she watched it as their teacher entered the room and walked to his lectern.
It was not much of a plan, but it was the best she could come up with for now. Any student who did not make it to homeroom was going to be investigated. That was going to cause problems and probably some embarrassment. It was better than discovering another body.
Now, all she had to do was wait and see who had not reported in for morning classes. It was a bit like hoping for a disaster to occur so that you could learn to predict them. Courtney was hoping – if hoping was the right word – for someone to be traumatised and injured in order to catch a killer. Sometimes, her job really sucked.
~~~
‘Nothing,’ Courtney said. She more or less slammed her tray onto the table beside Mitsuko’s. Her cutlery bounced and clattered. Her glass of juice sloshed out, forming a pool with her fork in it. ‘Oh…’
‘Calm yourself, Courtney,’ Mitsuko said. ‘It had to get smart eventually. We’re probably lucky it didn’t work out that it should keep student hours where possible before now.’
Kyle handed Courtney a handful of napkins. ‘The president’s right, Courtney. We’ll just have to move to plan B.’
‘There’s a plan B?’ Mitsuko asked.
‘Yeah,’ Courtney replied, ‘and you and Nava are going to be a major part of it. Actually, Nava is, but the first part is going to be better if there are two of you.’
‘You want me to wander around the campus looking for it?’ Nava asked.
‘That seems inefficient,’ Rochester commented.
‘We’re going to reduce the target area,’ Courtney said.
‘How?’
‘Oh, I figure I know the best place for this thing to find its next victims. So, Suki’s going to take Nava clubbing.’
Melissa and Rochester looked at each other and then both asked the question that first came to mind: ‘We have clubs?’
~~~
The campus actually had three establishments which could be described as nightclubs; it was in the middle of nowhere and it needed to provide entertainment to at least some extent. One of them did not serve alcohol and catered to the young adults at the school. One was aimed at the middle range, the older students and the younger postgraduates. Those two were located in the residential areas. The last was aimed at faculty and their families, and that one was out in the suburbia the older residents of the school called home.
Nava and Mitsuko could get into the first of them without any trouble at all. It was not exactly the sort of place Nava would have selected for having a good time. Mostly, the club area – and it was referred to as a club, not a nightclub – consisted of dance floor, but there were areas around that where you could sit at a table and chat. Sonic barrier magic was used to reduce the volume of the music outside the dance floor so that the chatting did not involve screaming at the top of your lungs. Nava was a little ambivalent about that since, given the opportunity to speak, the male customers were using that privilege to try to pick her up.
She supposed that it was inappropriate to blame them, and they were trying for Mitsuko about as much. Nava had exactly one dress suitable for a nightclub: the one Mitsuko had bought her for the party at the mansion. Mitsuko had found something a little less revealing to wear, though it was short, had a very low, open back, and was made of something which suggested a lot of what was technically hidden. It was probably unsurprising that they were getting attention, even if one of them was the student council president.
They were not, however, getting the attention they wanted. ‘It’s not here,’ Nava said. She was, as usual, expressionless, but there was something about her which suggested frustration. Or maybe just annoyance. Mitsuko was unsure why anyone was braving her gaze when she was giving off the kind of negative vibes that should have terrified potential suitors.
‘I guess we keep looking until Courtney comes and picks us up,’ Mitsuko replied.
‘If she waits too long, the death toll from the massacre will put the Harbinger to shame.’
‘Massacre?’ Mitsuko decided she had to be a little distracted after a second when it occurred to her what Nava was implying. ‘No massacring the students. It’s against school policy.’
‘Just the men? Please?’
‘No. Bad girl. If you don’t behave, there’ll be no treat later.’
The right corner of Nava’s mouth twitched slightly. ‘I feel like you should buy me a collar and a lead.’ She turned, scanning the room. ‘I wouldn’t mind if you did. Oh, Courtney and Kyle are here.’ And Nava set off toward the door.
‘Wait,’ Mitsuko said to Nava’s retreating back. ‘Nava, what did you mean by–’ No, she was out of range and clearly walking away just to leave Mitsuko hanging. She could be really evil at times. Mitsuko hurried to catch up and meet Courtney and Kyle halfway.
~~~
The second place they were checking out was the one for older students, and Mitsuko and Nava only got in because Courtney used her SSF authority. And then they had to promise not to drink any alcohol. Nava wondered whether the doorman thought either she or the president of the student council were going to break the law right under the nose of the SSF captain. Apparently, he did, but they were allowed in anyway.
‘I can’t feel anything yet,’ Nava said as they entered the club proper. It was actually referred to as a nightclub, though, like the first one, it was only open on Saturday nights. It was a bit dimmer and the atmosphere was different, but the layout of the place was more or less the same as its partner establishment. Nava could see people looking their way, but the presence of Kyle apparently shielded them from pick-up artists here.
Courtney had come decked out in an off-the-shoulder, long-sleeved top and a very mini miniskirt. All in black, which matched Kyle who was wearing dark jeans, a nanomesh T-shirt which did nothing to hide his physique and a fairly expensive-looking faux leather jacket. Nava suspected that this bad boy image was responsible for the lack of suitors and wanted to kiss him. Courtney might have objected and it just was not Nava’s style, so Kyle remained unkissed.
‘We’ll keep prowling for a while and then see if it’s at the place on the Estate,’ Courtney said. ‘We could miss it at any of them, but you’re the best detector we have, unless you have any clones.’
‘Sorry, I’m unique.’
‘Yeah, I’d worked that out. Kyle, would you get us some drinks? We’ll mingle and try to spot anyone doing anything odd, I guess.’
Nava had to wonder how they were going to do that considering that the light in the club was ‘moody.’ She had excellent night vision and it was still dim as far as she was concerned. The Harbinger could have translated itself into physical form in here and, so long as it ducked, you would have had trouble spotting it. Well, she would know when it was nearby. Did it get some similar feeling when it got close to her or was it one-way? She suspected it knew that she could sense it after the incident in Anton Landon’s apartment, but could it feel her nearby?
Well, maybe tonight was the night to find out.
~~~
‘What time is it?’ Mitsuko asked. They had been hanging around for a while now with no sign of the Harbinger showing up. Conversatio
n was beginning to lull. They had discussed men, politics, the latest fashion trends, whether alcohol was a worthwhile purchase, and the chances of any of the school’s teams doing well in the summer war games. ‘I’m going to start asking for ideas for the theme of the summer dance next and we don’t want to go there.’
‘That’s months away,’ Courtney said.
‘It’s closer than the war games.’
‘A valid point. It’s coming up to twenty-two hundred. An hour before midnight. Maybe we should try the Estate.’
‘We may have missed it,’ Kyle said.
‘Yes, but we can’t give up yet.’
Kyle shrugged. ‘Agreed. I was just trying to be realistic. This was something of a long– Nava?’
Nava had pulled herself up straighter and was looking around the room. ‘It’s here. It’s–’ She stopped in the middle of speaking and turned around as she felt something. There was a pressure on her mind, as though someone was squeezing her brain. Her fists clenched as she fought back against the force, and then it was gone and she turned to look behind her.
The Harbinger was staggering away from her as though stunned. It came to a stop maybe two metres away, obviously dazed and standing in a tall man with dyed blonde hair and very dark skin. The contrast between the blue of the alien and the dark-brown skin of the man and the confusion of limbs and heads created a monstrous pseudo-creature, a surrealist’s depiction of twisted life.
‘Nava?’ Mitsuko asked, obviously worried.
‘It’s there,’ Nava replied, pointing. ‘I think it tried to possess me and it… It’s stunned. I’m going to do it.’ Improvised spells were a standard of sorcery. Cantrips were, technically, improvised spells so simple that the magician could do them in their sleep, but you could temporarily work harder spells if you understood what was required. The Ascend spell that Rochester and Lambert had defined for her definitely fell into the latter category. It took real mental gymnastics to force the thought processes necessary to cast it, but Nava did it.
‘Wait,’ Mitsuko said.
‘No,’ Nava replied. And then her clothes were falling to the floor as she vanished out from inside them.
‘But– Damn it!’
‘She’ll be okay,’ Kyle said.
‘We can’t know that.’
Kyle once again shrugged. ‘Something tells me that she’s quite capable of taking that thing on. There’s something very dark about that girl. If I met her on a battlefield, I’d be running away screaming.’
Mitsuko frowned, unsure how to respond. It was not as though he was wrong…
~~~
To Nava, the experience of ascending to another plane of existence was somewhat different. The world around her faded. The colours became muted, almost to a monochrome, but the light seemed to get brighter as though there was light coming from a different source. Or maybe she was not seeing her surroundings with her eyes and the light really did not matter. There was something a little weird about the entire environment. Nothing looked entirely right, almost like she was looking at two-dimensional objects which turned to keep themselves facing her. It was like being in a video game where the graphics were amazing, but just a little out of step.
Her clothes fell through her, leaving her standing there in the nude. Her first thought on the matter was that Rochester had never mentioned that feature. Her second thought was that it might explain why the Harbinger wore no clothes.
‘But– Damn it!’ Mitsuko said. Her voice sounded like it was on the other side of a wall, muted and a little hollow.
Nava cast her Push spell on herself. The Harbinger was shaking off its stun, regaining its senses.
‘She’ll be okay,’ Kyle said.
Stepping forward as the murderer’s eyes refocused, Nava drove the heel of her hand into its chest. The creature was tossed back six metres, through various people who were now all a uniform shade of brownish-grey. It stumbled as it landed, falling in a jumble of over-long arms and legs. Somehow, Nava could still see it through the humans in the club as the only source of real colour in the world aside from herself.
‘We can’t know that,’ Mitsuko said.
Nava began casting defensive magic on herself as she moved toward the Harbinger at a slow walk. Mitsuko was sort of right: they could not know how this was going to pan out. It seemed reasonable to give herself the best chance of surviving the experience. Armour, two steps closer. The Harbinger rolled to its knees. Active Recovery, two steps closer. The Harbinger regained its feet and turned to face her. Closer still, and now it was within range of her arm.
‘Something tells me that she’s quite capable of taking that thing on,’ Kyle said from behind Nava. ‘There’s something very dark about that girl. If I met her on a battlefield, I’d be running away screaming.’
The Harbinger drew back an arm and threw a punch at Nava’s face. Her parry was not fast enough and the creature’s fist made contact… with an invisible barrier which flared briefly under the impact. It had left itself wide open for her counterattack. Her fist hit its chest again, and the alien was thrown back the way it had presumably come in, right through one of the building’s walls. Nava ran after it.
Somehow, she had imagined that passing through solid objects would be at least a little traumatic, but neither the people she was dashing through nor the walls presented any impediment. It was like running through air. Outside, she could not feel either the grass or the concrete of a path under her feet. She figured that, had she wanted to, she could have ignored the fact that there was a surface there and slid into the ground.
Out here, the muted colours were worse. Overhead lights provided illumination which seemed starker than usual. The lamps were carefully designed to direct light downward in a cone, reducing light pollution and making more efficient use of the photons. Here, that cone had a distinct edge, quite visible in whatever it was that passed for air. There was still a weird, overall sense of illumination which overrode the real-world light sources, casting a grey, eerie light on everything. The only thing which showed real colour was the Harbinger, running down a path away from her.
Nava followed. She was sure she was faster because she had gained ground running out of the club. Now she slowed herself deliberately. She wanted some distance between them. She needed space to use her Magic Burst. The Harbinger used its apparent advantage and turned a corner, and Nava lost sight of it behind a building for a couple of seconds.
Of course, it was an ambush. She was pretty much expecting it and she went on the defensive as she followed the creature around the bend. The Concussive Force spell – or whatever the Harbinger’s equivalent was – was actually more obvious in this place. It came at her in the form of a visible shockwave in reality, a distortion of space which glowed slightly. Nava threw herself into a dive, out of the path of the incoming attack, and sprang out of it and onto her feet. His second bolt hit her in the chest, tossing her through the air like a rag doll. Her vision darkened as pain lanced through her body. Her Armour spell had taken some of the force out of it, but not nearly enough. She had broken ribs for sure, maybe worse damage, and the pain was agonising.
‘You should not have come here, to my world,’ the Harbinger said. Part of Nava’s brain which was still functioning wondered how it could speak English so well. Was there a spell for that? She was over ten metres away from the thing, maybe twenty. Was it moving closer? ‘I was discorporated for my crimes, but they unknowingly made me more powerful.’
The pain in Nava’s body dulled to something bearable and she turned her head to see where the Harbinger had got to. Casting Active Recovery had been a good move. For that matter, the Armour spell had probably saved her life.
She was lucky; it was a sadist and it wanted her to suffer as much as possible. It was walking slowly toward her as it explained its power and her weakness. It was around fifteen metres away and still walking.
‘I’m glad that you’re awake,’ it said in a crowing voice. ‘I’ll make your last
moments as long and painful as possible. I was afraid that I’d killed you. That wouldn’t do at all. Have you ever felt the effects of the Agony spell? Really, you’ll wish I had killed you.’ It raised its hand. Nava lifted her own arm, trembling as though in acute pain. The Harbinger paused. ‘Still a little fight in you? Give me your best shot, human. There’s nothing you can do to hurt me.’ It almost spat the word ‘human.’ Like an insult.
‘I’m not as human as you think,’ Nava said. Her arm steadied and a bolt of incandescent white light left her palm. Even the carrier for Magic Burst was more obvious here and the effect, when it penetrated the Harbinger’s chest and detonated, was even more dramatic. The usual sphere of white light was a bluer colour and lightning arced around it as it expanded. Nava’s sorcerous armour flared as the edge of it touched her and the electrical arcs jumped to writhe over her body. They felt warm and tickled a little.
When the sphere vanished, there was no sign at all of the Harbinger. It was gone. Disintegrated. The feeling of unease the thing caused in Nava was gone too. No more murders. No more murderer.
She climbed to her feet, wincing a little as she felt her broken ribs setting. ‘Okay, so, now I’ve just got to go back.’ She looked back the way she had come, toward the club where Mitsuko and the others were probably waiting for her. ‘Cancelling the spell should work.’ She was speaking aloud, she realised, because the silence in this place was deafening and no one could hear her anyway. ‘Of course, then I’d be standing in a nightclub full of adults, stark naked. Possibly not the best course of action.’
Pulling her Flight spell forward in her mind, she lifted into the air. That still worked then. She had no ketcom to get her into anywhere, but she could walk through walls. Or fly through them. ‘This could actually be kind of fun.’ She let herself grin, because there was absolutely no one around to see her, and then she flew off toward Mitsuko’s apartment building.
~~~
Of course, without her ketcom, Mitsuko’s apartment had identified Nava as an intruder and sent a message to Mitsuko’s ketcom. So, Courtney and Kyle had burst into the apartment ready to blast anything they found there with Mitsuko right on their tails. And what they found was Nava, in Mitsuko’s red robe, sitting on one of the sofas in the dark.
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