At Large

by Andrew Seiple

“Hey, back off—” the Muscle Wizaard said, but Chase shouted.

  “It’s all right! Yes sir!” Chase forced herself to pat Don Sangue’s hand. “I can explain.”

  The Alpha said nothing, staring at her as the table slowly fell silent, and everyone took their seat again. His eyes were hard, but compared to Sangue’s dead gaze, his ire was something Chase could meet without flinching. “I never got to tell the rest of the story, of what happened in the casino. A cloaked figure threw Enrico out of his office onto the casino floor when the werewolves showed up. They fought, but I noticed the figure off to one side. In the Player’s area.”

  The Alpha blinked, and Chase saw a bead of sweat start up by his perfectly-groomed hairline.

  Don Sangue’s hand tightened for a second. Then it was gone from her shoulder, and his voice was friendly, almost conversational. “And then what happened?”

  “One of the werewolves went to confront him. He pulled out a... my friend called it a bomb. Then he used magic to get away but left the bomb there. Then the casino blew up. I have no idea how many werewolves made it out of there. Later on, when I told Cagna about it, she identified the figure as Pwner.”

  The Alpha blinked. “Wait. Cagna?”

  “Is this true, Cagna?” Don Coltello spoke up for the first time.

  “It is,” the dog-woman replied. “I didn’t see him personally, but his appearance and methods match the description. If it isn’t him, it’s someone pretending to be him and doing a damn good job of it, which is just as bad.”

  “You’re Cagna?” The Alpha rose from his seat. But he halted as Don Sangue raised a hand in dismissal, then pointed to Chase.

  “You are certain, that he was sitting in the player’s area of the casino?”

  And now Chase saw something in the very, very back of Don Sangue’s crimson eyes.

  Fear.

  Only a bit, but it was there.

  He knows, she realized. And oh, the next thing she was going to say was going to change everything here.

  But she had set this arrow in motion, launched it as if she’d shot it from a bow, and she had to follow its path regardless of where it landed. “I am sure of that. I saw it myself. Just as I saw one of the werewolves go in after—”

  “Cagna is one of the names in the ledgers! It’s the name of one of the Doge’s infiltrators!” The Alpha blurted, and every eye turned to him.

  No! Chase thought. She tried to salvage the situation, stave off what was to come. “I saw one of the werewolves go in after Pwn—”

  “Cagna and Lachina are the two secret police assigned to infiltrate and bring you down!” the werewolf roared. And Chase’s small voice and halven-sized lungs were no match for a loud, loud werewolf.

  And then it sunk in, what he was saying, and Chase whipped around to stare at Cagna...

  Cagna, who had gone back to back with Lachina, as the rest of the table glared at them and weapons began to sing free of sheaths.

  The werewolf stood and stalked around the side of the table, and nobody stopped him. Even Don Sangue was silent.

  He’s collecting his thoughts, Chase realized. He’s got massive charisma, but his personality is such that he’s not very adaptable. When he’s not in control of the discussion, he goes on the defensive. This is the wrong way to handle this guy. The wrong way to defend against such outrageous lies...

  And then she glanced back to Cagna, and several pieces fell into place.

  They aren’t lies. They aren’t lies at all.

  Cagna, who had never killed anyone in Chase’s sight, even when she’d been ambushed. Cagna who had disapproved of the Don’s business but was working for him anyway. Cagna, who had shown nothing but ease walking through a guard station and known the signals for various things such as dignitaries arriving. Cagna whose jobs would definitely NOT support the level of perception she had.

  It made sense.

  Well, Chase thought as the werewolf stalked around the table and angry confused gangsters rose and followed him, when have I ever let the truth of something slow me down?

  “You liar!” She jumped up onto the table, gaining what height she could and narrowly missing putting her foot into her soup. “You’re desperate! Pwner is after you and you want to sacrifice us to slow him down! You want to kill two birds with one stone!”

  The Alpha said nothing. He was sweating now, advancing on her...

  ...and then with an abrupt motion he twisted aside and moved toward the wall. He stopped there, and the crowd murmured, confused.

  “You don’t even deny it?” Chase asked...

  ...but he seemed to ignore her, turning and smiling. “It doesn’t matter now. I did my job.”

  “What? What have you done?” Don Sangue said, stepping forward. “Besides bring chaos to my house?”

  “Oh, we’ve brought more than that. Let’s just say Pwner inspired us. Wallwalker.”

  Then he whirled and threw himself back.

  Back through the nearest stained glass window.

  There was a pause for a long second.

  “What is that fool doing?” Don Sangue asked, almost rhetorically. “He can’t escape me, not here! Wallwalker!” And then, with a snap of his blood-red cape, he was through and after the werewolf.

  But Chase didn’t hear him. Chase’s eyes were going wide.

  Pwner had inspired him.

  “We need to leave right now!” Chase shouted, hopping down and grabbing the Muscle Wizaard’s hand. “Cagna, Wizaard, let’s go!” She tried to drag them toward the window.

  “What? Why?”

  “Hold on!” said Don Coltello. “Cagna, was what he said true—”

  “No time!” Chase yelled.

  There was only one way that Pwner could have inspired the werewolves to deal with a high tower full of their enemies.

  And then it was too late, as the first explosion went off far below, and the tower shook...

  ...and fell.

  CHAPTER 17: THE TOWER

  There was no time to think things through. There was no time to plan, no time to hesitate, no time to panic.

  There was only the collapsing tower, and the mob of panicking... well...mobsters, between her and the only way out.

  “Foresight!” Chase screamed and saw what she needed to do. “Bastien, run out the window! Make a path! We’re playing this like the casino! Renny, get ready to fly us all! Cagna, pick me up and hang on!”

  Your Foresight skill is now level 29!

  The Muscle Wizaard lowered his head and charged forward, shouting “Reckless Charge,” as he went.

  Chase’s world blurred, as Cagna’s arm whipped down and snatched her up. “Always in Uniform,” Cagna literally barked.

  The halven girl clung tight, seeing Lachina hot on their heels, the two women leaping and bounding over trampled gangsters and past shocked bodyguards, seeing the first cracks appear in the walls, seeing the bricks starting to fall from the roof above...

  ...and then there was an upward surge, and for a second Chase was looking down on the shocked crowd...

  ...as the screaming cut out, and she saw the edges of the window appear and tilt, saw the walls around it...

  Cagna jumped out the window. We’re falling, she realized as her perspective tilted, and the starry sky appeared overhead, the moon just on the horizon.

  “Renny!” Chase screamed.

  “I’m trying! Stop squirm... ah!” The fox shouted in her ear. “There!”

  Everything slowed.

  Chase felt her hair snap downwards, felt a jerk that ripped through her entire body. Cagna grunted, and Lachina swore.

  “Got you!” Renny cheered. “Uh oh. Um...”

  Chase squirmed, looked around, and saw why he was panicking.

  The tower wasn’t coming straight down. The tower was tilting their way. Bricks showering from its exterior, metal reinforcing struts starting to rip free, mortar flying in a cloud of dust against the moon... and the darkness of the old stone, crunching directly toward t
he small crew of slowly falling friends.

  “Oh my gods,” Lachina croaked.

  The tower shuddered. Then it stopped. Bricks cascaded down, and for a second Chase thought they were safe.

  CREAKKKKKK....

  It was a groan of old wood, stressed far beyond its tolerances.

  Chase’s eyes snapped to the holes in the bricks, seeing the exposed wooden ribs they were passing, the guttering flames of fallen lanterns catching old tapestries and illuminating the hole in the tower’s side. She saw crossbeams popping out and crunching, giving way bit by bit.

  PING! Something whipped past her, tugging at her hair, and Cagna grunted in pain. Hot liquid spattered onto Chase’s neck.

  A nail or something, Chase thought, and said “Lesser Healing,” without looking back.

  You have healed Cagna for 30 points!

  Your Lesser Healing skill is now level 37!

  Then they were past the open wound in the tower.

  “We need to fall faster!” Chase yelled. “Or get around the tower!” Her voice was lost in the wind, but Renny managed to hear her just fine.

  “This is really, really hard! Hang on! Summon Minor Elemental!”

  A tornado with eyes whirled into view a dozen meters away—

  —then they were past it, falling fast, the tower whizzing by...

  ...another jerk, and Chase was snapped around, her teeth clacking shut, her spine screaming in agony. That had to have done damage, but no time to think about it. She was now facing downwards. Cagna must have lost her grip then caught her again by the waist, and that was okay.

  Because now she could see the Muscle Wizaard, falling just below them, fifty feet down or so.

  And beyond him, two figures running down the tower. Running down it as if it were a flat field, and they were having a casual footrace. Except the one in the lead was fuzzy, huge, and running on all fours, and the one behind him had a red cape snapping straight up like a falling flag. She watched breathless as below them a support gave way, and wood and stone showered out of a broken wall. The werewolf Alpha swerved and the undead followed him, and then they were around the curve of the tower and out of sight.

  Then something massive rushed past Chase, so quickly that the air screamed and the little crew bobbled, and started to follow it down.

  “Oh heck no!” Renny yelled, and they stabilized...

  ...but Chase gasped, as bodies followed it down, screaming. Bodies in suits and dresses and sparkling jewelry, flashing in the mad moonlight. And then a table fell past, the same table she’d been seated at not long ago.

  “It’s coming down from above! Renny, get us around the tower!”

  “I’m! Trying!” The little fox shrilled at full volume.

  I’m not helping, Chase realized. She watched the air elemental dart down and scoop up the Muscle Wizaard, whirling him around and around as it pulled him back to the group. Then there were a few bumps, and for a second she thought they’d been hit...

  “Got us!” Renny shouted. “Oh boy. Uh... look out above!”

  Chase twisted, tugging at Cagna’s arm.

  “Mother of Nurph!” Cagna howled, as she glanced up... and Chase caught what she was staring at.

  A mass, a black mass of the tower was coming down on them. She saw stars through the holes in it, holes that were growing as the floors and walls and ceilings broke apart mid-fall, but with a sudden clarity Chase knew that it wouldn’t spread out fast enough. They would be crushed.

  Unless...

  This. This is something I can help with.

  “Foresight!” Chase shouted.

  The falling mass paused, and she watched them all die. “Foresight!” she screamed again as soon as time resumed.

  This time the outcome was different. “Take us left NOW!” Chase yelled.

  They bobbed, air whipping at her, the city lights coming into view as she whirled right, and then they were gone as a chunk of brickwork screamed past.

  Your Foresight skill is now level 30!

  But there was no time to rest, because more debris was coming, and Chase screamed “Foresight!” again and again. She burned her fortune freely, spent it like water in a bath. And six skill levels later, they were around on the other side of the tower, and she blinked to see the werewolf and undead now racing the other way, hopping over windows... and straight into a huge cloud that was rising to meet them.

  Dust, she realized. Dust from the initial explosion. From the tower collapsing at the base.

  “Hold your breath!” she called and then grimaced. I can’t tell Renny which way to go if I’m holding my breath.

  But wait, I’ve got a skill for that, don’t I? I don’t have to be the one telling him to do things, if he can see it for himself...

  Then she couldn’t see a thing; they were in the dust, and the smell of charred chemicals filled her nose. “Silent Activation, Influence Fate: Renny,” Chase muttered.

  Your Influence Fate skill is now level 2!

  “What the heck?” she heard Renny say, then she heard a groaning and a massive SNAP.

  The wooden supports, the big ones, had finally given out.

  “Are you doing this?”

  Chase reached over her shoulder and squeezed his nose.

  “Oh, okay then! Give me another!”

  Your Influence Fate skill is now level 3!

  Your Influence Fate skill is now level 4!

  Seconds passed by, blind seconds, with massive bits of rubble and other things falling from above. Enormous chunks falling around them, whipping the dust and smoke up, and Chase couldn’t see a thing.

  “Again!” Renny called.

  “Silent Activation, Influence Fate: Renny,” Chase mouthed.

  But this time, the words that appeared made her heart sink.

  Insufficient Fortune to cast that spell!

  “I’m out!” Chase called then put her face into the furry crook of Cagna’s elbow, scrunching her eyes shut and coughing from even the brief inhalation of fumes.

  There was nothing to do but wait. Wait and hope.

  A second passed. Three. Five, as they whooshed down through the cloud.

  For a moment, Chase dared to hope that they’d escape. For a second, it looked like they might.

  Then, everything tilted, and Chase felt Cagna’s grip leave her. “No!” The dog-woman barked, and Chase was spinning, falling out of control...

  “Ha! I’ve got us!” Renny called out.

  Then it was back to the slow fall. Alone this time, holding her skirt down, Chase drifted down with Renny in her pack. She fell to her knees and put her hands on the ground the second they touched down, shaking, feeling sick to her stomach. No clue where the others were; no idea where they were for that matter.

  She just knew that she wasn’t safe, that this was the very opposite of safe.

  The dust was thinning, she noted absent-mindedly. I can almost see....

  KRAK!

  Then a chunk of wall was right in front of her, and Chase yelped as fragments screamed and ripped past her, cutting her clothes and skin in equal measure.

  Time to go!

  She didn’t know where. She didn’t have time to examine her skills, or figure out a good strategy, or do anything beyond run and hope for the best. No time to do anything but flee and trust to her luck.

  Which, fortunately, was her best attribute.

  Shrieks and screams from above intermixed with crunches and cracks as stone and wood and bodies met ground in a roaring cacophony that sounded like a groaning giant, a bass moan that went on, and on, and on.

  The dust thinned ahead of her and she turned toward it, turned toward what seemed like a light, hoping against hope that it was the way out, that it would lead to safety.

  No place in this city is safe, the thought stuck in her head and wouldn’t leave.

  Then she was out. Out, and coughing, and the noise behind her was finally coming to a stop, the giant’s groan dying with its occupants. More pattering, a few m
ore creaks, and the occasional, forlorn crunch... but Chase didn’t care about that. Chase sat on the ground and laughed or sobbed, she couldn’t tell, and her vision filled with words, words, words.

  You are now a level 10 Halven!

  AGL+4

  CHA+4

  CON+2

  DEX+4

  INT+2

  LUCK+4

  PER+2

  STR+2

  WILL+2

  WIS+4

  COOL +5

  MENTAL FORTITUDE+5

  You are now a level 10 Grifter!

  CHA+3

  DEX+3

  LUCK+3

  You have learned the Feign Death skill!

  Your Feign Death skill is now level 1!

  You have learned the Old Buddy skill!

  Your Old Buddy skill is now level 1!

  You are now a level 11 Grifter!

  CHA+3

  DEX+3

  LUCK+3

  You are now a level 12 Oracle!

  CHA+3

  LUCK+3

  WIS+3

  You are now a level 13 Oracle!

  CHA+3

  LUCK+3

  WIS+3

  No, Chase realized as she squatted on all fours on the ground; no, she was laughing after all. Laughing as the energy rushed through her once more, giving that oh-so-tantalizing buzz.

  “I wanted ADVENTURE!” she shouted and climbed to her feet, thankful for her shoes for the first time. The ground was littered with rubble and sharp bits and maybe some people; she didn’t want to look too closely at those lumps which bled darkly in the moonlight. “And I got a halven level because I just spent the worst minute of my life regretting that CHOICE!”

  Honestly that might not have been why, but Chase didn’t have much time to reflect on it. Her newly-increased mental fortitude reasserted itself, and the orders of business became clear to her.

  “We need to find the others. Got anything that’ll help with that?”

  “I’m alive...” Renny whispered.

  “Yeah. We need to check on the others. Got anything to help, there?”

  “Yes! Yes I do. And now that we’re not falling, manipulating this air should be easier... oh, and let’s have a Phantasm, because it’s kinda dark out.”