by Sean Davies
“Me?!” Genevieve said, surprised. “V, I’ve got businesses to run.”
“You know Greg, Tanesha, Kaylie, and Varsara can handle the Circle,” Veronica replied coyly.
“Maybe I don’t want to play tour guide,” Genie said through gritted teeth.
“It’s fine, honestly,” Constance shrugged nonchalantly. “We’d rather wait for Chloe anyway.”
“I don’t mind either way,” Stitches added honestly. “I just want to learn more about Book Wielders!”
Connie sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Now, now,” Veronica chided as she put her hands on her wide hips and skimmed their thoughts. “Constance Lee, you think Genie has wicked style, and you’re wondering if what’s under those baggy jeans is as good as the top half of her. You also think I’m interfering too much, and you don’t know whether you want to hit me or sleep with me—you should meet my friend Lynette, she’s much worse,” Veronica smiled evilly.
Connie didn’t know where to look, or what to say.
“Genevieve Jameson,” Veronica carried on relentlessly. “You think Connie’s got some serious junk in the trunk, and despite your initial clash you’d still love to sink your fangs into that soft olive skin of hers. You’d also like to douse me in Sanctium—naughty, naughty, Miss. Jameson.”
“I hate you,” Genie said moodily.
Stitches looked at the beautiful Vampire Bloodmage intently and spoke wistfully. “You’re very concerned with your husband’s mind, you’re afraid that something has happened to him—”
Constance quickly nudged her Alternative friend before he could say anymore, and Stitches broke out of his trance and looked around in a daze.
“How…?” Veronica gasped.
“He picks things up from other people,” Connie explained vaguely. “It’s like, his thing.”
Veronica gazed into the puppet’s black eyes but was unable to pick anything up. “How fascinating,” she mused academically.
“That’s pretty cool,” Genevieve complimented.
“Oh… thank you,” Stitches said, a bit embarrassed. “I’m sorry I used telepathy on you, Empress Reynolds.”
“Pfft.” Veronica waved her hand dismissively. “If I had a Credit for every time I’d dug around in someone’s head, I’d be the Empress of the world,” she joked.
“Ha, ha,” Genevieve remarked, unimpressed; she was still annoyed about her new appointment. “I take it I don’t get a choice in this matter?”
The busty Vampire rubbed her chin and appeared theatrically deep in thought. “Well, the Shadow Circle Remnants report directly to my husband Winston, and by extension the Conclave organisation, and when he’s not about the Conclave’s decision-making falls down to me…”
“Fine, I get it,” Genevieve moaned. “But you owe me for this.”
Connie shot her new inductor an unpleasant look, but Stitches just looked happy they were out of their time-killing limbo.
“I’ll tell you what,” Veronica began, sounding like an actress reciting well-rehearsed lines, “why don’t we all go out for dinner? It’ll be my treat! Then we can all get to know each other a bit better.”
“That sounds cool,” Constance agreed, trying to stay on Veronica’s good side and avoid any more embarrassing telepathic confessions.
“Like you pay for anything on this isle,” Genevieve replied broodily.
“It’s the thought that counts,” Veronica winked naughtily. “Genie-girl, you begin the grand tour and I’ll start making the arrangements. Then you and I can get ready, and we can head over to one of my favourite restaurants together!”
“Yay,” Connie and Genie both sighed sarcastically.
“Brilliant, thank you!” Stitches said merrily. “I can’t wait for dessert.”
✽ ✽ ✽
The search had been surprisingly arduous, but in the early evening Lord Imperator Alice Eve and Book Wielder Chloe O’Kelly had finally found the unregistered portal on Central Isle’s stony northern shore.
To begin with, the Justiciars had used their airship mounted scanners to comb the shores for any magical energy, as the Isle’s defence grid hadn’t registered anything out of place, but they too had come away with no anomalies. The Justiciars and Conclave working under Alice’s orders had no choice but to search on foot.
After two hours of meticulous searching and concentrating on boulders and rock formations (of which there were many), Chloe had finally sensed a trace of Demon illusion magic. She had followed the invisible trail like a bloodhound chasing a scent, to a huge patch of jagged, light grey beach rock amidst the seaweed-stricken stones. There appeared to be nothing there, but anyone who could sense magical powers knew otherwise. They had managed to dispel the Demon illusion together, and a small charred crater appeared in the centre of the flat rocks. At its heart was a big trapdoor fashioned from a circle of white stone, and it wouldn’t open for them no matter how hard they pulled.
“Why was that magic so hard to dispel?” Chloe asked as she poked the sealed trapdoor dubiously.
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Alice answered, waving Chloe away from the white stone with her free hand while getting a better grip on her war hammer with the other.
“It must have used something, I dunno,” the redhead shrugged as she moved well out of the way. “Probably the same reason sensors aren’t picking it up.”
“We’ll have to get the entire isle checked out the hard way,” Alice commented, raising her Spell-forged steel war hammer above her head with both hands.
The Lord Imperator swung her weapon down towards the ground, and with the help of her strength-enhancing power armour the trapdoor was shattered to smithereens in just three strikes, revealing an iron rung ladder that led down to a dingy rectangular room carved into the unnaturally deep beach rock.
“Think it’s safe?” Chloe asked, throwing a few rocks down the shaft to see if anything bad happened.
“Probably not,” Alice replied as she assessed the width of the hole. She put the war hammer onto her back and the armour’s inbuilt magnets switched on automatically, fastening the melee weapon in place behind her until it was needed again. “I’ll go first and shout when it’s clear to follow.”
Chloe and the armoured Justiciars nodded, and they watched on with anxious anticipation as Alice took each careful step down into the dimly lit room below. Alice held her breath as she lowered herself, ready to react to any hidden threat or devious trap, but luckily she reached the bottom without incident.
The hidden room was longer than Alice had been expecting, and only contained a three-foot tall featureless black pyramid and a golden arched gateway that surrounded a swirling blue and grey portal, which was the only source of light in the smooth stone space. The Lord Imperator went to inspect the strange pyramid but stopped herself, concluding that it was safer to shoot than to snoop.
Alice pressed the side of her thick thigh armour, causing a section to open and push a bulky white plasma pistol upwards. She grabbed the holster and fired off three perfect shots at the unidentified object, which distorted and crackled with green and blue lightning as they struck.
With Corriztis’ illusion gone, the once flawless pyramid was now a mismatched pile of technology featuring three car batteries, one plasma energy rifle clip, several motherboards, a dozen small radio antennae, and a large white stone cube dented with three burning holes where Alice had shot it.
Alice was contacted by Justiciar HQ as she watched the strange device fizzle out, and she flipped open her wrist guard and tapped her HCD. “What is it?”
“Ma’am,” the communications officer began, “we’ve just picked up the portal on our scanners. We’ll send over the coordinates now.”
“No need,” Alice replied. “I’m looking right at it. Theodore—the Demon—had something down here blocking our sensors. It looked like a waist-height pyramid before I destroyed it. Get all available squads to begin searching the isle, and make sure they have at least on
e Book Wielder or magic-sensitive with them—and tell them to watch out for traps,” she added, remembering Corriztis would most likely have pre-empted her reaction.
“Yes ma’am, right away ma’am,” the officer replied before closing the line.
“Chloe,” Alice called, “come down here, and bring four troopers!”
“Coming, Ali!” Chloe shouted back.
Chloe joined the Lord Imperator and looked around at the subterranean portal room. She eyed the destroyed device critically. “So, that’s what was scrambling our sensors? Shame it’s in pieces.”
“I couldn’t risk keeping it active,” Alice grumbled; she, too, would’ve preferred keeping it for study. “I need you to check it out, and the rest of the place too. Your senses are sharper than mine.”
“That’s ‘cos you don’t bloody well practise enough,” Chloe smirked cheekily.
The four Justiciar troopers looked at each other, and Alice imagined that they were wearing amused looks underneath their black helms.
The ginger Book Wielder raised her hands up defensively before Alice could reprimand her. “Sorry ma’am, getting on it right away ma’am!”
Chloe flicked her long curls over her shoulder and closed her eyes. She reached out with her arms and imagined that her whole mind was filling the secret stone room. The redhead could feel the power of the portal rippling through the small space like soft waves lapping against her body, and something old, foreign, and extremely dangerous was woven into the golden framework that was keeping the magical rift open. Other than that, the room was cold, lifeless, and more importantly: safe.
“Everything other than the portal checks out,” the Book Wielder began as she opened her eyes. “Might be a trap, might just be coded for a particular user—its Archmage tech and I’m still pretty rusty reading it, so I can’t tell for sure.”
“I didn’t know you could read it in the first place,” Alice said surprised.
“Only the odd character here and there,” Chloe replied as she began her inspection of what was left of Corriztis’ device. “Alexander the Artillery is teaching me, while I wait for other people to get their shit together on the book front.”
“You’d be better off working with Autons,” Alice joked as she made her way towards the portal with her troops. “Machines are far more reliable than people.”
“I hope you’re not including the bedroom in that statement,” the redhead sniggered naughtily. “Although, you would have a point…”
The Justiciars laughed, one wolf-whistling at the cheeky Book Wielder, but Alice stiffened, causing everyone to fall silent immediately.
“I know, I know: ‘not appropriate mission behaviour’,” Chloe grumbled. “You don’t need to say anything.”
Alice Eve said nothing as she walked to the swirling blue and grey portal. She had been hoping to see her husband, Jonathan Knight, after the Conclave of Nations had ended, but Corriztis had robbed her of the opportunity and she added it to her list of reasons to want the Demon dead.
Their marriage was far from strained, but both the Lord Imperator and the Trinity of Old’s most trusted representative had a habit of putting duty first which left them little time for each other. Alice had tried in vain to get Jonathan to stop working for the Trinity and join the Justiciars—both so they could see each other more and to get him away from Cherriesa, who she hated with a passion—but he had served them since they’d been founded in the Shadow Wars and was unwilling to change the habit of several lifetimes. Jonathan had often joked that she should hang up her war hammer and work for the Trinity, or just Kaine at the very least, but had stopped after Alice’s retaliatory punches had become less playful and far more painful.
The gateway vibrated as the group neared, and large rectangular plates expanded outwards as though the gold was still warm from the forge. Dozens of straight rivulets formed on its smooth surface, running parallel from one another and pulsing regularly with charges of bright red energy, like a cross between an electrical circuit and a blood vessel. The portal’s colour changed marginally in response, and a faint red mist was added to the distorted whirls.
A trooper waved the others back and slowly moved his rifle towards the interstice. The first half of the long weapon disappeared under the portal’s unnatural waves, but nothing untoward happened. The Justiciar breathed a sigh of relief, but when the trooper retracted his gun, they found the front half no longer existed.
“Looks like we’re not welcome,” the trooper moaned as he ran his fingers across the perfectly sheared rifle barrel, grateful that he hadn’t used his hand to test the portal.
“No surprise there,” Alice said as she moved in for a closer look. “This place wasn’t booby-trapped because it’s a dead end.”
The energy coursing around the golden arch changed to a vibrant shade of blue and the raised areas retracted back with a pleasant chiming sound. The red hue disappeared and was replaced with a more prominent shade of aquamarine.
“I think it likes you,” Chloe said. She could feel the archaic magic purring pleasantly.
Alice looked at the portal intently and then tested it with the very tip of her plasma pistol. It entered and then left the mesmerizing whirlpool completely undamaged.
“You think it changed for me?” Alice asked in a disbelieving tone.
“Well, you are half-Archmage.” Chloe shrugged. “It’s that, or Corriztis is inviting you.”
The Lord Imperator balanced the pros and cons in her mind. On one hand the Demon could be goading her, but on the other she had an opportunity to find Corriztis’ hidden lair and take it out of the picture once and for all. It could’ve even overlooked her mysterious Archmage heritage and therefore her ability to bypass the portal’s defences, or the possibility that anyone would even be able to find the portal in the first place with his combination of illusion magic and an obfuscation device. Alice also had an incredibly tight time limit to work to, thanks to Winston Reynolds’ political pandering.
“I’m going to take a quick look,” Alice said definitively. “Alone,” she added quickly as everyone took a step forward.
“But what if Corriztis is on the other side?” Chloe protested.
“That’s exactly why I’m scouting ahead first,” Alice said, entering the portal before the Book Wielder could say any more. She was fed up of losing people to the corruption Demon’s games.
The Lord Imperator found herself in a brightly lit corridor and was forced to blink rapidly to adjust her eyes to the new surroundings. She had been expecting to find a dimly lit stone passage, much like the Catacombs that the Trinity of Old occupied, but instead she was presented with sterile white walls, and a floor and ceiling to match. If not for a thick black line that ran along the seams Alice would’ve struggled to discern anything more than a vista of brilliant white. She couldn’t make out any lights and came to the assumption that the smooth surface was self-illuminating.
“Fuck me, it’s bright!” Chloe cursed from behind Alice.
“I ordered you to stay,” Alice said gruffly.
“Well, technically I follow the orders of the Conclave…” the fearless redhead began with a grin.
Alice tutted, aggravated. “That’s bullshit and you know it. Members of the Conclave and Justiciars follow the orders of the senior ranking official, regardless of affiliation.”
At first Alice had often wished that Winston had designed the two organisations as one instead, but as time passed on (and as he grew more impatient with her results) she was glad that she didn’t have to report to the unofficial Emperor every second of the day.
“Language, ma’am,” Chloe giggled as she rubbed her eyes. “You don’t want to sound unprofessional.”
“Fine. You can come with me, as long as you keep quiet,” Alice said grumpily, but in truth she was grateful for the backup in such an alien environment.
Chloe beamed a smile and went to speak, before raising a finger to her lips and giving Alice a thumbs-up.
They walked down the narrow corridor slowly and mindful of secret dangers, their footsteps echoing ahead of them creating an eerie rhythmic backdrop that drove Chloe to humming an annoying tune which Alice found even worse than the creepy ambiance. Although their senses couldn’t detect anything malicious, they left nothing to chance and kept their eyes peeled for the slightest change in the glowing white hallway.
After five minutes of methodically plodding along, Alice and Chloe were able to spot an opening in the distance which contained three more portals in their line of sight. A robed man stood in the centre of the room with his arms outstretched in a joyous gesture.
“Lord Imperator, I thought I heard your clumsy footsteps resounding through my private network!” the figure yelled. “You’re not supposed to be here—naughty, naughty!” it chided.
Alice raised her bulky white pistol and aimed at the distant figure. “Corriztis? Or is that you, Theodore?” she shouted back. “Why don’t we end this now?!”
“Alice… Alice…” Chloe said nervously, pulling on the Lord Imperator’s black and gold cloak, a gesture that Alice could not feel through her thick armour.
“Now is not the time, Alice Eve,” Corriztis called cheerfully. “You would surely win, especially with young Chloe O’Kelly in tow, and that’s not how my game ends!”
Alice nudged herself forward and spoke through her clenched teeth. “And how does it end, Demon?”
“Alice fucking Eve!” Chloe yelled.
“With me saving the world, of course!” Corriztis bellowed jovially.
“Lunatic,” Alice hissed as she steadied her aim.
Chloe used all her strength and the entirety of her bodyweight to yank the Lord Imperator backwards before she could open fire.
Alice turned angrily as a slab of dark orange ooze smacked into the floor, right where she’d been standing moments before. Droplets sprayed on her white power armour and began dissolving it like acid.
The Book Wielder was quick to react, and used her force magic to yank every molecule of the acidic concoction from Alice’s armour in one rapid sweep of her arm.
“The ceiling, Alice!” Chloe stuttered frantically as she tried futilely to pull the Lord Imperator’s armoured form backwards. “Look at the motherfucking ceiling!”