Whisper of the End

by Held, Maximian

  “We have to keep moving Caius.” Kearika hisses. The Adjudicator breaks free, crawling towards his motionless companion. Sergio is not dead yet. The ruffians kick him as he crawls, laughing all the while.

  We can save them. I begin striding towards the Adjudicator and his tormentors. Kearika gives a disgruntled sigh but falls in behind me.

  “Excuse me.” I say quietly to the backs of the group.

  “What do you want?” One of them snarls as he turns around, right before Kearika’s elbow smashes into his mouth. In a spray of teeth and blood he twirls to the ground.

  A steel capped boot to the groin drops another tormenter, while a pair of swift punches knocks a third to the cobblestones. While Kearika takes care of them I poke the last in the throat with my staff, sending her gasping and stumbling away.

  The group stomping on Sergio looks up and runs over to us with their blades out, glinting silver in the sun. Kearika impales the leader, hurling his leaking body over her shoulder like a farmer tossing hay. She spears another with the steel capped spike on the end of her halberd, his chest makes an uncomfortable crunch and he falls across the stones twitching. My illusion gives out, and her halberd is no longer disguised.

  I run over to Sergio, running my hands along his body as I look over his wounds. Bruises, multiple stabs wounds and probably a punctured lung. Easy. I start mending his wounds with my magic, letting the warmth pass from my hands into his broken body. After a few seconds some color returns to his cheeks and I cut off the flow of aether. Have to use as little as possible, we might need it.

  Kearika has dispatched the last two, and one of them is most certainly dead. Six inches of steel through the eye socket is beyond my abilities. The other’s arm and a leg are bent the wrong way, but he’d live.

  “Will he survive?” The Adjudicator asks as he scrambles over to his fallen companion. I nod once before standing up and pulling my hood over my head, and the Adjudicator gives a small sigh.

  “That’s good, I'd hate to have to break in a new one. I am Sentus, Adjudicator of the Tower. First District. Who are you?” He asks me, as he stares at my morbid face paint.

  “We’re just passing through. We saw you in trouble and wanted to help is all.” Kearika replies, putting herself between Sentus and I. Sentus looks her up and down and shrugs.

  “You did a good job healing Sergio kid, nearly as good as one of the mages from the Tower. Once this whole deal blows over, you should see if they’ll train you. I’ll put in a good word for you.” Sentus says.

  Almost as good? I open my mouth to retort but Kearika cuts me off.

  “What has been going on here?” Kearika asks him.

  “About two weeks ago some group of troublemakers showed up. Claimed they were here to ‘Right the wrongs done by the Tower to the common man’ and all that. We got sent into handle them, but things went bad quickly.” Sentus says, rubbing the base of his neck.

  “Turns out there was a lot more of them then we thought. Lost quite a few good mages over the last two weeks. We didn’t think they were here in the First District but apparently, we were wrong. Haven’t heard anything from the other districts for over a week now.” Sentus say with a frustrated sigh. He bends down and tries to lift Sergio up, but gives up with an annoyed growl.

  “You had better get off the streets as soon as you can. It isn’t safe right now. The crowds have been tearing mages apart, even hung a few from the lights.” Sentus says with a grunt as he starts walking away, leaving Sergio laying there in the street.

  “Typical.” Kearika says under her breath “Stay safe out there. Just ignore the angry mobs killing people in the streets. I’m going to go hide behind a thousand different enchantments now, and leave my Protector out here to die.”

  “Can you blame him for running away? It is pretty clear it is not safe out here. Now where is the Opaline Scale?” I ask her, picking up Sergio’s arms. Kearika grabs his legs and together we carry him inside a nearby home.

  “This way, it should only be a few blocks from this square.” Kearika grunts as we set him down.

  Outside the mob has fallen apart, most of them having scattered during our fight with the Zauberei. A few of the more severely burnt people lay still, having succumbed to their wounds. The less injured ones are hobbling away, with some being helped by those unhurt by the burning light. The square is nearly empty now, and no one pays us any heed as we set off towards the Scale.

  After a few more minutes of walking we arrive at the Scale. Just like Kearika said, it’s rather pretentious looking. The outside is painted to look like marble, with fake gold leaf covering almost every surface. Whatever is coloring the stained glass windows has started to run down them, and long spider web like cracks run up them as well. The door has a handle shaped like a bunch of grapes, but the brass sheen is wearing away to the underlying pewter.

  We push on inside, into a common room full to the brim with Zauberei. At least two dozen of them are going back and forth, carrying reports and other things. A massive table dominates the space, on it is a map of the city. They pay no attention to us as they go about their work. Kearika kicks the door shut behind us, knocking out one of the panes of glass.

  The bustle in the room comes to a stop and two dozen pairs of eyes turn to look towards us. Kearika turns and locks the door, the snick of it loud in the heavy silence.

  “Now, just to be clear. You’re trapped in here with us, not the other way around.” She says, a wide grin splitting her face. The Zauberei just stand there, still frozen in shock at our arrival. They glance at each other uneasily, their hands slowly travelling towards their weapons.

  Kearika and I glance at each other and throw ourselves into them. Kearika leads, screaming her lungs out as she charges. I stay behind her, content to make sure she doesn’t get surrounded. She bats the lead Zauberei’s weapon away before impaling him, burying her halberd halfway up the blade.

  As he collapses and pulls the halberd with him, Kearika uses the momentum to launch herself into a flying kick that terminates in the chest of a Zauberei by the table. His back hits the edge and he topples over it, scattering the markers placed over the map. Kearika falls flat on her back and sweeps her legs as she stands, smashing the ankles of a hapless Zauberei together and knocking them to the floor.

  She pulls his knife from its sheath, smoothly dragging it across his throat as she rises. With almost casual disinterest she throws it hilt deep into the chest of the woman across from her, who collapses to the ground clutching at it. Her illusory disguise falls apart as she fights, revealing her fearsome features.

  The Zauberei explode into motion, drawing their weapons and encircling her against the table. Four of them break off, fanning out around me, their faces grim as they draw closer. Well, good going Caius. You are supposed to watch her back and got so distracted that now you are both surrounded.

  I do not see any silver on their blades, and none of them seem to be armored. Without those special blades of theirs, they should not be able to hurt either of us. But they should know that, so why are they not running?

  I back up towards the door, bumping up against it as the Zauberei stay with me. I study them intently, trying to drink in any details that might be useful. Kearika’s consciousness tugs at mine, pointing out the third in the semi-circle as the weak link.

  His left leg bows inwards slightly, probably broken in a fight sometime in the past. A solid hit with my staff will knock it out from under him. The knowledge of what to do floats to the top of my mind, I tighten my grip on my staff. Calm down Caius, you have done this before. Kearika and I have fought this way twice previously, both of them dire situations. Kearika found the whole process unsettling, but she has never explained to me why.

  Her people do hold the soul in high regard, and this is basically a melding of ours. I suppose the whole thing must be at odds with her beliefs. Thankfully it is all just aether to me.

  I whip my staff up above my head before whirling it down one h
anded into the man’s knee. With my aether enhanced strength his knee doesn’t just break, it folds up perpendicular to his leg with messy crunch.

  As the first and fourth Zauberei bring their swords down to hack me to pieces I pull my staff back and up into an overhead block. With wooden thocks their swords skitter off my staff, which shimmers blue at the points of impact. Good luck hacking through this.

  I poke the fourth, a whip-thin woman, in the chest and follow up by flicking the staff into her chin. Her teeth clack together as I step back and thrust the steel capped end into her forehead. She collapses to the floor and I bring the staff to rest against my leg.

  The last two Zauberei share a quick glance and I tense up, trying to gauge what they’re about to do. The one on my left has a predatory look on her face, like Kearika does when she is sizing up someone. The one to the right seems completely unfazed that I put down his two friends that easily. I do not see any scabbards on them, so I doubt they are going to pull out those silver knives.

  In a flash of movement, the woman pulls a small glass sphere from a hidden pocket and hurls it at me. I bat it out of the air with my staff, and it covers me in its contents. Shimmering silver dust rains down on me and my ward sizzles at its touch. The man pulls out pistol from behind his back, pointing a barrel as wide as a chestnut at my face.

  Boom!

  The pistol ball gets caught in my ward, which bursts. An arc of blue lightning leaps out from my failed ward, striking the man in the chest. He is blown to the ground, singed but still conscious as he shakily reloads.

  I feel very exposed, without my ward there is nothing to stop the next shot from putting me down. I just got done reestablishing it after Dan collapsed it. I am not going to have to time to repair it, unless Kearika feels like waiting two more days. And where are these Zauberei getting all this disruptive silver from? It takes months to produce the handful of powder that woman threw at me!

  Most silver is perfectly harmless to mages, but a tiny fraction of it is massively disruptive to the aether. A piece of silver the size of a person might have a single piece the size of a thumbnail that’s naturally disruptive. Of course, there are ways of enhancing normal silver to this potency, but it requires a mage or a massive amount of resources. Resources beyond the average citizen and controlled by the Tower and the military.

  The woman flicks her sword out, past my guard to slash my leg. It tears a burning line from my hip down to my knee, I give a small cry of pain as my magic rushes to heal it. I hear Kearika gasp in sympathy as she feels the cut too.

  Out of the corner of my eye I can see Kearika is busy holding off the rest of the Zauberei. Four more are down on the floor, dead or clutching at bleeding wounds. The Zauberei attack in groups of two or three at a time, while keeping her pinned against the table by their numbers.

  She grabs one of them, twisting around so his compatriots slash cuts deeply into his chest instead of Kearika’s. She shoves the bleeding man into his friend, pulling his sword from his nerveless fingers as she does. The two of them collapse on the floor, the one pinned beneath the other’s weight. Kearika slaps aside the third’s guard and opens his throat with horizontal chop.

  The others force her back before she can finish off the two on the floor, they drag the pair to safety behind them. By now only half the Zauberei remain, the two by me and the handful around Kearika. The room reeks of blood, and the floor around Kearika is coated in it. So far Kearika hasn’t been touched, but I doubt that will last forever. She isn’t getting tired, the aether sees to that, but eventually luck will side with the Zauberei. The longer this fight lasted, the sooner they would get that lucky shot.

  I do not want to kill these people with my magic. I do not want to repeat what happened in Ba’tshish. Not that it matters, I do not know these people well enough to perform any kind of magic without touching them. If I was using the Aether, I could think of a dozen ways to end all this right now. As I am right now though, nothing springs to mind.

  I could probably tap into the Aether, just for one spell. I shake my head at the idea. No, that is far too dangerous. I gave into that temptation in the pine forest, and look how that turned out. The man on the floor by me is nearly done reloading. With a grunt Kearika hurls one of her attackers across the room, where he slams into the wall and crumples to the floor.

  “Stop overthinking it Caius! Just go with Plan B!” She shouts as two of the Zauberei grab her by the arms. Kearika kicks one of the Zauberei’s legs out and brings her knee up into her face as she falls to the ground. With her free arm Kearika throws a quick elbow into the other man holding her, he stumbles back clutching at his throat.

  “What is Plan B? What happened to Plan A?” I shout back to here, confused.

  Wait, did we even have a Plan A?

  The woman in front of me takes the opportunity to try and remove my head but I bat her attack away. A quick sweep knocks her to the ground and an overhand blow to takes her out of the fight. Without thought I smash the pistol out of the remaining man’s hands before batting his temples with my staff. He slumps bonelessly on the floor, joined quickly by the man still clutching his broken leg.

  I look around me, noticing the beaten Zauberei for the first time. “Oh.” I say quietly. I had gotten so caught up in try think of what “Plan B” was that I had let Kearika’s influence take over completely. She definitely has a “take charge” sort of spirit.

  Just half a dozen of our foes are still standing, and they draw into a shallow oval between Kearika and me. They present their blades outwards, nervously shifting their weight. Kearika rips her halberd out from its corpse and levels it in front of her, the Zauberei crouch a little, setting themselves up to receive her charge.

  The three facing me watch intently as I just stand there. I am not going anywhere near that. I might have Kearika guiding me, but I do not want to risk putting myself in the middle that and getting stabbed at an inopportune time. So, instead of doing anything hostile I smile and wave at them.

  In one fluid movement they draw pistols from behind their backs, level them at me and fire. One misses, whizzing by my head, but the other two do not. One slams into my left shoulder, shattering every bone in the area and blowing a hole through me. The second plunges into my hip, burying itself somewhere inside. This is what I get for trying to be clever. I give a shout as I collapse, trying to land on my uninjured arm. My staff clatters to the ground next to me and I claw at the floor as I drag myself away.

  Kearika gives a pained shriek and hurls her halberd like a javelin, it buries itself halfway down the axeblade through the chest of the first. Force of the impact knocks him into his companion, impaling him on the protruding spike. They collapse in a heap on the floor, the haft of the halberd waving back and forth as they die. In a fury she leaps forward, slamming into one of the pairs on the end and bowling them over to the floor. A brutal stomp to the throat finishes one, the other finds his own blade rammed through his chest. I’ve managed to crawl a few feet away and already my magic is fixing the damage.

  With an intense burning my shoulder knits over, muscle rapidly growing back over newly made bone. Molten lead pours out from the wound in my hip as it heals over, and I nearly pass out from the pain. With a click my shoulder sets itself back in place and a fresh wave of agony washes over me.

  The last two Zauberei rush Kearika, and she lets their swords strike her wards. At least hers are still working. Both blades disintegrate on contact with it, leaving their owners standing there in shock. With a yell Kearika slams their heads together, dropping them both to the ground.

  The whole place is deathly quiet, the only sounds are dripping blood and labored breathing. Kearika rushes over to me, sliding to her knees next to me. Worry twists her face as she kneels over me.

  “Caius! Don’t move, I’ll go find help.” She says breathlessly, patting my wounds down with her hands. A copious amount of blood has soaked through my robes before the magic stopped the bleeding. Her hands come back coa
ted in my blood and she starts rooting through her pouches.

  “Kearika, I am fine.” I say, trying to rise but Kearika pushes me back down.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, you're going into shock. You just lay here and try to conserve your strength. I think I can stop the bleeding, but you’ll have to keep the pressure.” She says in a rush, pulling a long strip of gauze out with a sharp yank.

  The force of it dumps the rest of the stuffed pouch, little vials of ointments scatter all over the floor and Kearika gives an annoyed snarl as they roll away. She starts wadding the gauze up and pushing it into my shoulder, which keeps me on the ground.

  “Kearika! How many times have I healed you?” I snap, shooing her hands away as I finally sit up. Well these robes are definitely ruined now. It took me weeks to set all these enchantments up.

  “You’re okay!” She exclaims, pulling me into a fierce hug.

  There are upsides to being clever I suppose.

  “Why didn’t you say something!” She says grumpily as she hunts around for her ointments, shoving them back into the pouch minus the gauze. One vial in particular is a shining silver, like captured moonlight.

  “I tried to, but you kept running me over.” I say dryly and Kearika gives me a small grin in reply.

  “I think we should spend a few minutes tearing this place apart. I’ll take the upstairs, you look around down here.” She says, offering a hand to pull me up.

  “Deal. I do not want to go upstairs anyway on this new hip.” I tell her, rubbing my leg as I stand. Still sore, but it works. Not bad for a hole that size, and definitely better than just any “Tower Mage.”

  Chapter XXVIII - Kearika

  Duras - Knihovna

  29th of Telod, 1873 MD

  As Caius gets to his feet I head to the stairs, leaving my halberd propped up against the map table. I’ll search up here quickly, and then we’ll keep moving. We can’t risk anyone else coming to check on this place. I can’t believe Caius let himself get shot like that. I’d bet my left arm he thought he was doing something clever.