Night and Chaos: An Ashwood Urban Fantasy Novel (Half-Lich Book 3)

by Lee Dignam

  “I didn’t know those things had souls,” Cameron said, “But I saw the light coming from the big one as I was jumping across.”

  “Where are the other two?” Silver asked. “I can’t see them.”

  Alice finally returned to the moment and turned to look at the garage. The other two shadow-beings were gone, but someone else had taken their place. It was easy to tell that, standing on the rooftop in the place of the two shadow beings, was Cora, her long brown hair being tugged by the wind. Alice wondered why she was up there, what she was doing—maybe she had seen the shadow entities standing there and had chased them off—but she wasn’t going to get any answers right now so she turned away.

  “Who’s that?” Cameron asked.

  “That’s Cora,” Alice said.

  “Cora?” Silver asked.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Alice said. “We’ve gotta go and regroup with Isaac.”

  “Good plan,” Cameron said, “Then we have to get the hell off the streets. The wind isn’t going to get any weaker.”

  Alice nodded. “I won’t argue with that,” she said, and she started to move toward the edge of the building, scanning for a fire escape they could use to climb down. The minotaur had smashed through the stairwell enclosure, cutting off that way exit route. But she didn’t get very far before Silver put his hand on Alice’s shoulder to get her attention.

  “I’ve gotta tell you something,” he said.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I think I know where those things came from.”

  “What? How?”

  “Because I saw one of them—the one with the cape. It was the last one to come down.”

  “Come down from where?”

  Silver looked up at the swirling, dark clouds in the sky that were creating something like a whirlpool in the heavens. She hadn’t seen it before, but she saw it now—that menacing eye of churning gray. She turned her head down to look at Silver and, with only her eyes, asked him a question she had learned the answer to simply by studying the roiling darkness above for more than a fleeting second.

  “Yeah,” he said, “It came from up there.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Bring the Chaos

  “The magistrate is going to go ballistic when they see this,” Jim said.

  Alice scrolled down beyond the video of Silver leaping off a building with his sword in his hand. They were in Isaac’s house, huddled around a laptop on Isaac’s dining room table. Silver had been the one to suggest searching the internet for videos, and they had found one. It already had six thousand hits, a vast majority of thumbs up, and only a few thumbs down.

  The camcorder that had been used to take the video hadn’t captured the long tail of the shadow creature Silver had used to quickly get from the roof of the building he was on to the ground. The video itself was blurry, too, and shaky, and the wind hitting the microphone made it difficult to hear anything besides a constant crackle. But to those who were there, to those who watched it happen, it was real alright.

  “I don’t know about that,” Cameron said, “Look at all the comments. Cool effects, bro… fake… not as good as other fan films… the girl with the sword is pretty hot.”

  “What the fuck?” Silver asked, pushing in to read the comments.

  “Okay, that last one was a lie. Point is, no one believes what took place actually happened. I think we’re protected.”

  “Really?” Jim asked, “Because this video already has a few thousand views. If it goes viral…”

  “Then we’ll deal with it,” Isaac said. “We saved those people from being seriously injured or killed. We did a good thing.”

  Alice shut the laptop down and decided to go talk to Cora, who was standing by the fridge. The mages were busy having a conversation about the after effects of what had happened and the potential impact on humans, but Cora wasn’t a mage, so she had little input. Alice walked over to the fridge, grabbed a couple of sodas, and handed one to her.

  “Thanks,” Alice said, “For staying with the guy at the bar.”

  Cora nodded. “I saw him get packed into the ambulance and got the hell out of there,” she said. “I figured you could use a hand.”

  “I appreciate it. You didn’t see where the two things on the roof went, did you?”

  “No. I saw them up there, but by the time I reached the place, they were gone. Do you have any idea what they were?”

  “Not really. When I was hunting, my targets were usually noisy ghosts—nothing like this. I can’t believe the thing had a soul; wasn’t expecting that.”

  “How do you feel?” Cora asked. “After having eaten the soul, I mean.”

  “I feel good. Strong. It was a pure soul.”

  “Has it talked to you yet?”

  “I think it did at the beginning, but it was loud on that rooftop. I couldn’t hear myself think, let alone someone else’s soul. I’ll probably hear it tonight while I’m sleeping.”

  “I’d be curious to know what it says.”

  “Me too. Maybe it can tell me how the fuck it wound up serving as fuel for that minotaur thing.”

  “I think I can help with that,” Jim put in. “I could be wrong about this, but I believe those beings you encountered were constructs.”

  “Constructs?” Alice asked.

  “They were built,” Isaac said. “At least, from what you’ve told us and from Silver’s experience, that’s the best we can gather.”

  “But Silver said he saw them coming down from the sky—or at least, he saw one of them.”

  “I did,” Silver said, “I know I did.”

  “And I don’t doubt you did,” Isaac said, “But we know no human soul can survive in the Void without protection of some kind. I don’t know if those creatures were built ten thousand years ago or ten hours ago, but the fact remains that they were built by someone to serve a purpose.”

  “To serve Nyx,” Alice said.

  “It’s highly likely,” Jim said.

  “But… they weren’t Pain Children.”

  “Not in the way you’ve come to know them,” Isaac said. “But there’s another factor that leads me to believe these were Nyx’s creations. The storm itself—it’s magic.”

  “Magic?” Alice asked, her eyebrows knitting together.

  “Void magic, to be precise. This is why the other mages can’t detect its supernatural qualities; Void magic is invisible to mages of the Tempest. At the same time, Void magic alone wouldn’t have been enough to conjure a storm like that one—she had to have used magic from the Tempest to summon it and cloak its true origins. I first felt the storm last night, but I didn’t think anything of it because I couldn’t sense anything from it. If it hadn’t been for Silver spotting the shadow creature descending from it, and then you finding the soul inside the minotaur, I wouldn’t have known to truly study the storm.”

  “What do we know about it now?” Jim asked.

  “I think it’s damaging the shield between our realm and the Void.”

  “That’s how they’re getting in,” Silver said. “Through the cracks in the shield.”

  Isaac nodded. “I’m almost certain that’s the case here.”

  This was a lot to take in even for Alice. Cora, who had just joined the crew and had only recently come into the world of mages, the Tempest, and magic like nothing she had known, must have been entirely overwhelmed. But if she was, she wasn’t making it known. Cora nodded along, soaking everything up and understanding what she could.

  “So, the storm is a… Void storm?” Alice asked. “And Nyx is feeding it souls and producing these shadow beings?”

  “I don’t entirely know,” Isaac said, “You and I are going to go up to the roof and examine the storm’s properties. We need to know more about it, and what Nyx is doing with it.”

  “Isn’t it obvious? She’s trying to tear down the Void Weavers’ shield one bit at a time.”

  “That’s what I suspect, but I need to be precisely sure. Cameron i
s going to head back to his sanctuary and check on the animals. Jim is going to head to the vault and do a little reading—see if there’s anything he can dig up in the old texts. Silver is going to keep an eye out for more of those creatures.”

  “And Cora?”

  Isaac glanced at Cora as if he had forgotten his wallet. “I’m… not sure,” he said, “I didn’t want to assume.”

  “You don’t have to assume,” Cora said, “I’m in, remember? I’m as much a part of this as you are now.”

  “I understand that, and I meant no disrespect. I simply do not know your skills.”

  “Her skills are like mine,” Alice said. “She’s gonna be a great help.”

  Isaac nodded. Cameron, Jim, and Silver started heading for the door. Cora followed. Alice took her by the arm and stopped her. “You’re going?” she asked.

  “I don’t think there’s anything I can help you with here,” she said, “Besides, I need to go home and get changed.”

  “Okay, but be safe. It’s getting dangerous out there.”

  “I’ll be safe,” she said, and she left the apartment ahead of the others.

  One by one, Cameron, Jim, and Silver followed. They all had jobs to do, as did Isaac and Alice, and the longer they waited to get it done, the stronger that storm would get. The news had been on the entire time with a newscaster mouthing words on the muted TV set. The riots had been covered, as had the incident at the bar. Emergency services were already stretched thin due to multiple accidents taking place throughout the city, and Alice thought it would only get worse before it got any better.

  When the rest of the group had left, Isaac came over to where Alice was with his shoulders low. “I’m sorry,” he said, “I didn’t mean to tell you what to do.”

  “I know,” Alice said, “I also know you’re only looking out for me. You’re the logical one, I’m the impulsive one, remember?” She used the word impulsive because she didn’t want to use the word stupid.

  “Sometimes it’s good to trust your instincts.”

  “I still don’t think waiting around is a good idea. The surgeon is dangerous, Isaac. You know that.”

  “I do, but Nyx is even more dangerous—and the source. If we destroy her, it’ll have a cascading effect on everything else she’s brought into this world.”

  “You’re sure about that?”

  “No, but I’m hoping.”

  She kissed him softly on the lips. “I trust you,” she said. “Now, whatever it is we’re going to do, let’s do it.”

  He nodded. “First I need some time to think, to organize these thoughts and suspicions.”

  “Okay, what do you need from me?”

  “A great many things, but none we have the time for, so I’ll settle for a cup of tea.”

  “Really? A cup of tea?”

  “Tea helps me concentrate.”

  Alice sighed. “Sure, I’ll make you a cup of tea.”

  Isaac smiled and kissed her on the cheek. “Thanks, love,” he said, and he headed for the armchair pressed between a bookshelf and a window and sat down. There he placed his clasped hands over his chest, let his head rest, and closed his eyes. Was he napping? She didn’t think so, but it sure looked like he was.

  She made him his cup of tea and finished the rest of her soda. Then she walked over to the coffee table in front of the TV, set the cups down, and read the scrolling headlines as the news anchor silently spoke. Tensions on the streets were already reaching fever pitch. Stories of what had happened during the protest, on both the police’s side and the protestors’ side, varied, but justice for that little boy’s life certainly hadn’t been served.

  It got worse, too. Those accidents the news had earlier been talking about weren’t accidents at all—just like the car slamming into the bar Alice had been sitting at earlier wasn’t an accident. There were more of those shadow things out there, possibly running around all over town unchecked. As Alice watched, she remembered the unspoken words she had heard in her mind while looking at the four entities standing atop the parking garage.

  Bring the chaos. Bring the chaos. Bring the chaos.

  CHAPTER 18

  We Can Love

  Isaac got out of his seat so fast it made Alice jump. He was already on the move, but she reached for his hand and grabbed it before he could get out of her range. He stared at her for a moment as if her hand were ice against his skin, but then he blinked and seemed to come out of whatever momentary trance he had put himself into.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “I have to stop it.”

  “Stop what? The storm?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’ve already said yourself you don’t know how to stop it. Did you suddenly learn new magic I don’t know about?”

  “No… but I think I have an idea.”

  Isaac pulled his hand free and walked along his apartment and into the closet where he kept his shoes, his safe, and every spare tool from every piece of furniture he had ever had to put together with his own hands. This closet also happened to be where Alice had stored Sonia’s soul, and watching him rifling around in there made her nervous. When he started to unlock his safe, she got an idea what he was up to.

  “Care to clue me in?” Alice asked.

  “It’s complicated,” he said with his back still to her.

  “Oh, don’t give me that bullshit.”

  “It is. I promise. Mages of House Pluto use very real, very scientific principles in their magic. Explaining some of these variables—”

  “You’d better watch it,” Alice said. One of her hands reflexively went to her hip.

  Isaac stood up and backed out of the closet with the brown shoebox in his hands. In it was the Tupperware containing Sonia’s soul. “I didn’t mean to imply that you weren’t smart enough to understand my magic,” he said, “I apologize if it came off that way.”

  “Apology accepted, but since it seems like your plan involves what’s in that box, I would like it if you at least indulged me.”

  He carefully passed the shoebox to Alice and pressed his hands together. “Okay,” he said, “So, we know the storm originated in the Void.”

  “Yes.”

  “Which means that it’s slipping into this world by using the cracks in the shield we haven’t yet been able to fix.”

  “I’m with you.”

  Isaac walked up to Alice, then went past her, and headed into his living room. He turned on the spot, pointed at her, and said “Blasting it with magic from the Tempest won’t work because it’s simply too powerful. So what if we could send a portion of our magic, like a precision beam, right up through those cracks and directly into the Void?”

  “You think that’s possible?”

  “In theory, yes. Why not? I could kick myself for not having thought of this sooner.”

  “There has to be a reason why you didn’t think of this sooner. Some complication you’re not seeing right now?”

  Isaac lowered his head in thought for an instant, and then said “I wouldn’t just need very powerful magic; I would also need the right kind of magic.”

  “And what’s the right kind of magic?”

  He thought again, and the moment hung for a frustrating second too long. “Your magic,” he finally said.

  “My magic,” Alice said, her eyebrow cocking.

  He approached, his hands cupped in front of his mouth like he was trying to warm them up on a cold day. “Your magic wouldn’t register as foreign to the Void because yours is pure. Mine isn’t. I am able to wield both separately, but there are traces of each in every spell I cast. If this storm is intelligent, and we must assume that it is—like every other emanation of the Void we have encountered—in fact capable of sentient thought, then it will know it is being tampered with if I even attempt this on my own. Since I don’t know what the consequences of such a scenario are, I wouldn’t even want to try it.”

  “So you want me to send my magic through the cracks in the shield?
”

  “Not exactly; what I want to do is push my magic through you and then send that purified power directly into the throat of the storm.”

  “You thought this was too complicated to explain? Because I’m pretty sure you could have just compared me to a water filter.”

  Isaac grinned and fished his phone from his pocket. A moment later, he was on the phone to Jim. The phone lines had been bad ever since the storm hit, but Isaac had managed to enchant his, Jim’s, Cameron’s and Alice’s phones to rise above the interference the storm was putting out, which had been causing minor power outages and service disruptions for the past day at least.

  While this was going on, Alice set the shoebox down on the dining table, opened it, and pulled the glowing, cold Tupperware from within. A ribbon of sparkling, blue light danced in front of her eyes and Alice watched with a smile on her lips. Souls in their purest forms were among the most beautiful things in the world, no matter who they once belonged to. She set the Tupperware back in the shoebox and looked up at Isaac.

  “Jim’s coming,” he said, “Silver too. We can’t get through to Cameron, but that’s probably because he’s out at his sanctuary.”

  “Okay, so… what do we do in the meantime?”

  “We put this plan into action without them.”

  “Shouldn’t we wait?”

  “No. We don’t have time. Every second we waste is another second the storm spends accumulating power. We need to act now. I also won’t need everyone to do the magic I think I need to do—just Silver, and he’s coming.”

  Alice nodded. “Fine. Then we act.” She smiled, placed a hand on his cheek, and kissed him gently on the lips. “I’m just wondering… why did you bring the soul out of the safe?”

  “I wanted to make sure it was still there.”

  “Where else would it be?”

  “I don’t know. I just had a feeling.”

  “Well, that itch has been scratched, I hope, so how about we put the soul back in the safe?”

  Isaac nodded.

  Alice placed the Tupperware container back in the box and stuffed the box back into the safe. Isaac’s strange behavior set off a few of her own internal alarm bells, but she couldn’t find anything else immediately wrong so she left the thought alone. When she was done with the box, she walked out into the living room and found Isaac waiting with a long, thick coat thrown over his shoulders and a black umbrella in his hand. Alice frowned, walked up to the coat rack where he was standing, and retrieved her leather jacket—the one with the hoody on it. She also grabbed Trapper and slung it around her neck.