Rend Hope

by Josh Webb

  "Feels like we've been here forever." Markus complained, leaning back in his chair and placing his feet on the table's edge. Marie sighed.

  "It's only been fifteen minutes since we entered this room. I'm sure you'll survive a few more." She told him. Markus began rocking himself back and forth using his feet.

  "Why do we have to go through all this crap anyway? These people know you right? And the guards we met at the gate told them all about my completely awesome heroic deed of saving you didn't they?" The blonde magi asked, Marie nodded in agreement.

  "Yes the guards at the gate gave their report. This is just normal procedure for the city. We try to screen as many strangers as possible, to try and make sure we keep the ones who are threats to the city away." She explained, Markus turned to look at her, one eyebrow raised.

  "So what about you? You're not a stranger to them and I'm pretty sure they would know better than me if you were a threat to the city. Why do you have to sit here?" He questioned, Marie looked away, unable to look him in the eye.

  "I'm going to be debriefed, I was on a mission before I was captured by those cannibals." She told him, still not looking at his face. Markus brought his feet down from the table and propped his elbows on it, leaning forward to eye Marie curiously.

  "A mission huh? Just what kind of mission?" he asked suspiciously, she shook her head.

  "I can't tell you." She replied, Markus smiled.

  "Oh a top secret mission! Are you some sort of super cool ninja assassin? Were you sent out there by the city to brandish your own unique brand of shinobi justice?" He asked jokingly, Marie rolled her eyes.

  "No blondie. Nothing that exciting." She answered, Markus rubbed his chin in thought.

  "Alright, well, if it wasn't anything exciting, why can't you tell me?" The "Ordinary" magi asked curiously. Before Marie could answer, the door to the interrogation room opened revealing a man with a tan cowboy hat with brown hair in a ponytail that went to his shoulderblades, the whiskers on his face matching his hair color. Markus noted that the man really loved the color blue, as all his denim clothes were blue except for the white shirt he wore underneath his dark blue trenchcoat.

  "Sorry I'm late, it's not easy being the sheriff of this city. Had some stuff that I had to take care of real quick before coming here." The pseudo-cowboy said, tipping his hat and nodding towards Markus. "Sheriff Kendal Wallace." He introduced himself. "I'm in charge of keeping people safe here." He turned towards Marie and smiled. "You little lady I know already, it's good to see you safe Lady Marie." The teenage girl rolled her eyes at her title.

  "Please Kendal, you don't have to use the honorific with me. You know how much I hate it." She told him, the sheriff shrugged.

  "You know me, always got to be the gentleman." He replied smoothly, Marie raised an eyebrow.

  "Does that mean that Janine has given you back your cigarettes?" She inquired, Kendal lowered his head in exaggerated melancholy.

  "No! She said I was being too lazy and needed to spend more time with her, but apparently taking a nap on the couch next to her isn't her idea of quality time." He answered sadly, Marie snorted.

  "Gee, I wonder why." She said sarcastically, Kendal shook his head and turned to face Markus a melodrama gone.

  "So you're the one who accompanied Marie to the city correct?" The sheriff asked, Markus smiled.

  "Yup." he said simply,

  “Care if I ask you a few questions?”

  “Nope.”

  Markus waited for a question to be asked, but Kendal’s lips didn’t move an inch he just continued to stare lazily at the aeromancer. Markus could feel the air shift around the sheriff and his instinct was telling him he wasn’t going to like this questioning session. This wannabe cowboy was going to do much more than talk.

  Suddenly Kendal pulled out a golden revolver with his right hand and fired a blast of magic energy faster than a human eye could blink. Markus winced as he brought his right hand forward, summoning his magic energy for a swift spell, this was going to be close…

  ***********

  Two deputies were deep in conversation as they walked down a seemingly deserted hallway in the Sheriff's office. Their conversation was interrupted when they heard an explosion from the interrogation room, which was just ahead of them. The hallway shook violently for a few moments and a cloud of dust shot out from under the interrogation room's door.

  "Looks like the sheriff is at it again." The first deputy said with a sigh.

  "Yeah. Can't he have a normal interrogation for once? I'm sure the carpenters are getting tired of fixing that damn room." The second deputy complained, the first deputy jerked his thumb in the direction they came from.

  "Come on, let’s just pretend we didn't hear or say anything. I don't want to be the one to break this to the mayor, or worse, the carpenters." And with that the two deputies took off whence they came and no one was the wiser.

  **********

  Quiet once again settled in the interrogation room. Marie slowly lowered her arms from her face and reopened her eyes to see that the wall behind and to the right of Markus had a huge hole in it, exposing an empty storage room. The dust was slowly dissipating and as she looked back toward the two men she saw that both of them were now standing. Kendal still had his golden revolver trained on Markus, who had his hands in the pockets of his flannel jacket.

  “I don’t think that was a question.” Markus said, a touch of humor on his voice. Kendal sighed in response.

  “That didn’t quite go how I hoped.” The sheriff replied in a bored tone, Marie looked at him in dismay.

  “And just how was shooting Markus going to go as you hoped?” The teenage girl asked.

  “Well….” Kendal started, “Half of me suspected that you were far more than the ‘Ordinary’ Magi you claimed to be to my deputies.”

  Markus raised an eyebrow, “And what about the other half?”

  “Well that was hoping you would’ve eaten that blast and died, so that I wouldn’t have to spend all my free time concerning myself with you.” Kendal answered.

  “Glad you’ve got your priorities straight.” Markus said, the sheriff gave a little shrug in response.

  "I have to admit, it was pretty slick of you to deflect my blast like that." Kendal stated, Markus had a smirk on his face.

  "Yeah well, magi acting as sheriffs make me jumpy." The blonde magi replied, Kendal's smirk mirrored his.

  "Heh. What gave me away that I was a magi?" The sheriff asked.

  "Well besides the nice big hole in the wall behind me. I'd say it was that shiny revolver of yours. It's obviously not a normal gun, but I can't figure out whether it generates the power for those blasts on its own or if it draws it from you directly." Markus told him, the sheriff's smirk turned into a smile.

  "I guess the only way for you to find out is with further trial and error." Kendal announced, before Marie could protest, he was firing his revolver once more. Markus responded by pushing off his left foot, dodging to his right. The "Ordinary" Magi then leapt onto the wall and used it to springboard away from a second blast fired by the trigger-happy sheriff.

  Marie was once again covering herself to protect against the flying debris and dust from the two revolver blasts. She was not pleased at how this debriefing and interrogation was proceeding. Why did all the guys she know always have to try and solve everything with violence?

  As Markus landed on the opposite wall, he extended his right hand and fired a quick blast of wind at Kendal. The sheriff quickly dived forward onto the table that was amazingly still upright. He narrowly avoided the blast as it blew the door of the interrogation room clean off its hinges and slammed it hard into the hallway beyond. As he slid across the table he fired another shot at Markus, but the blonde magi deflected it with a burst of air with his left hand. The blast went into and through the ceiling.

  **********

  "Yes! Finally found the damn leak Bill!" The carpenter called to his partner, Bill quickly raced
over from his position on the roof of the sheriff's office.

  "Hell yeah Craig! I thought we'd be up here all damn night looking for that thing!" Bill said to his partner, Craig was grinning ear to ear.

  "Me too. Hey, what do you say when we finish fixing this thing we head over to Joe's and grab a couple of rounds." Craig suggested, Bill's face brightened at the prospect.

  "Hell yeah! I bet you I can drink you under the table!" Bill challenged, Craig laughed.

  "Fat chance man! I come from a long line of drunks and I..." Craig was interrupted by a sudden explosion, as a blue pillar of magic energy burst forth from the roof just three meters in front of them. The two stared incredulously at the one meter in diameter hole that was now smoking in front of them, hours of hard work now down the drain. Silently they approached the hole and peered down it. Several floors down they could make out the familiar hat of Midas City's one and only sheriff, Kendal Wallace. He appeared to be fighting a blonde man in a red flannel jacket. The two were silent for a moment before Craig spoke up.

  "I fucking hate that sheriff sometimes." He cursed, Bill just nodded in agreement.

  **********

  The two men, sheriff and magi, were now in reverse positions from when they started. Markus in front of what was once the door to the interrogation room and Kendal in front of what used to be the room's southern wall. The sheriff had his revolver pointed towards Markus while the "Ordinary" magi had his left palm extended towards Kendal. Nothing but the sound of drywall and other small debris falling from the multiple holes in the room could be heard for few moments before Marie's voice chimed in.

  "Are you two fucking crazy!?" She shouted. "Why don't you bring the whole building down while you’re at it!?"

  "Bah, I wouldn’t hear the end of it from the mayor." He replied, "All I’m doing is some routine questioning." Markus' eyebrows raised in response.

  "Really? Shooting people is routine questioning for you?" The blonde magi asked, Kendal shrugged.

  "In a way, yes. I needed to see for myself if you really had the power to take out a ghoul and a group of cannibals by yourself. Obviously, after our little exchange I see that you do. You're quite strong." The sheriff complimented, Markus shook his head. This guy may be a lazy fool, but his talent could not be doubted. Whoever the mayor of this city was, he was wise to make him the sheriff.

  "You know dude.” Markus started, “I'd take a compliment better from a person if they weren't pointing a gun at my face." The "Ordinary" magi stated, Kendal chuckled and after giving him another analytical stare, holstered his revolver, Markus likewise, lowered his arm.

  "Well there were some legitimate questions I needed to ask you 'Ordinary' Magi." Kendal told him.

  "I'm all ears." Markus responded.

  "For starters, where did you come from?" Kendal asked.

  "The east coast." Markus said simply, the pseudo-cowboy whistled and shook his head.

  "Why did you travel all the way here then?" He questioned, the short blonde man shrugged.

  "Some guy just pointed west and off I went." Markus answered, Kendal glared.

  "Funny." He said sarcastically, Marie began to dust herself off.

  "Sadly I think it's true. Didn't you read Teivon and Henry's report?" She asked Kendal, who shrugged.

  "Yeah I skimmed through it. Just wanted to see if this guy had any inconsistencies with his story." He replied, never taking his eyes off Markus. "So far everything checks out, even your terrible sense of direction, but I can tell there is something you're not telling me."

  "And what's that?" Markus asked, mildly curious.

  "The real reason you are here." Kendal answered, Markus' eyes narrowed, was his poker face really that bad? He didn’t want to reveal who he really was unless it was absolutely necessary. If word got out about who he had once trained under then traveling incognito would become pretty difficult.

  "I already told you..." Markus started but Kendal interrupted him with a wave of his free hand.

  "Yes, you already told me someone pointed west and you followed, but I can tell just by the way you're fighting that you have an ulterior motive here. There is repressed anger in your actions." Kendal paused for a moment, when he spoke his voice was slightly colder. "So, want to tell me what your motive is?"

  There was a long pregnant silence, Markus glanced over at Marie and saw her young face was full of concern, probably afraid that they were going to start fighting again. He didn’t like it, but he had to give the cowboy something, otherwise things would get messy. Time for the contingency plan.

  "Let's just say I'm looking for someone, sheriff." He told Kendal, who narrowed his eyes in response.

  "And why pray tell, are you looking for this person?" Kendal questioned, Markus tried his best not to wince.

  "He stole something from me. Something important." Markus finally said, it was true to a degree.

  "What did he steal? Gems? Barter goods? A lousy trinket? Girlfriend?" Kendal asked, barraging Markus with a series of questions, the blonde magi snorted at the last one the sheriff asked, if this guy only knew his ex-girlfriend…

  "None of those." Markus replied, slowly reaching into his right pant pocket to show he wasn't being aggressive. The "Ordinary" magi pulled out a silver necklace with a disc-shaped medallion, both had seen better days. He threw the medallion to Kendal, who caught it with his left hand. Upon close examination, the sheriff realized that there was a socket within the center of the medallion where a gem should be.

  "The gem this person stole means a lot to me. I heard he ventured to the west coast and followed suit." Markus explained, Marie turned to the flannel jacket-wearing magi.

  "You do realize the west coast is a very big area to search right?" She asked him, Markus shrugged, relaxing his stance.

  "It's not like I had anything better to do with my time." He replied, Kendal examined the medallion a moment more before throwing it back to Markus.

  "Any idea what this person looks like?" Kendal asked, Markus placed a hand on his chin as he thought for a moment, perhaps this could work in his favor, maybe his quarry had been sighted in this area.

  "White hair, white beard, wields a fancy staff and wears a dark purple cloak." He informed Kendal, Marie's eyes widened and she paled when she heard Markus' description. Both men picked up on it and turned to her.

  "Something wrong Marie?" Kendal asked the teenage girl, she slowly looked towards him.

  "This person Markus is looking for, he's the same one who killed my entire team." She answered.

  **********

  A very shoddy barn made out of rusty sheet metal was Benjamin's current shelter. The structure was only big enough for a bed, a desk and a small lamp. Fortunately, the place was only a temporary shelter, he'd be here two, maybe three days max before moving on.

  Currently he was waiting here on orders of his "Master" Ebrim Thraves. Supposedly, his master had taken out a team of Midas City Deputies and had set a trap for anyone that would come looking for them. Benjamin's task was to confirm the person who sprung the trap was dead. It was a waiting game and he hated waiting.

  Deciding to try and stave off boredom, the teenage necromancer-apprentice decided to take a leather ball out of his backpack and practice kicking it against the barn's wall. The ball made a loud clanging sound every time it struck the sheet metal, but he didn't care. He was out of earshot from where the trap was, so the victim wouldn't hear it, plus kicking the leather ball was therapeutic for him. He used to do it all the time as a kid, after being scolded by his father for not training hard enough to his liking.

  His father, Benjamin felt his anger rise just thinking of him. He always pushed him too hard in his training, pushing him well past his limits. Even when it was obvious that he was overly fatigued his father still demanded more from him. Rebecca, his sister would usually be the one to get his old man to back off. Really he didn't understand why his dad was such an asshole with training, and now that he was dead, Benjamin figured he ne
ver would now.

  The teenage necromancer-apprentice frowned, kicking the ball suddenly wasn't so therapeutic anymore.

  ***********

  There was something foul happening near Midas City, but Janine Garlow wasn't quite sure what it was yet. The vice-sheriff currently had her sorcery analyzer on her right eye. Designed herself with a little help from some tinkerers in Midas City, the analyzer looked like a monocle, a gold chain attached from the monocle all the way to a clasp in her right pocket. It displayed data by magically inscribing it in words on the lense, then fading off after a time. The analyzer allowed her to scan for traces of sorcery and necromancy. She had found neither at first.

  What she did find was the place where the southern scouting team had met their end. There were bits of torn fabric from tan military fatigues, the uniforms that most deputies wore. There was also five human sized bloodstains soaked into the sand. Each bloodstain had a trail of dried blood that led off in a different direction. Janine had spent most of the night following four of the trails, each one was a dead end. However at the end of each trail were traces of sorcery, but not necromancy.

  Another scouting team would arrive at her location shortly now that it was morning, but she didn't want to lose time. Besides, checking the location of this last possible corpse could be the breakthrough she needed. This blood trail was heading back west, which was very different than the other blood trails. Two went east a little ways, one went south, where the trail went cold as it reached the outskirts of the Mistwoods. Finally, the fourth blood trail went north, just to the east of Midas City.

  Janine's sorcery analyzer was starting to get traces of necromancy, she felt grim satisfaction in finding out that the threat to her city of a necromancer assault was in fact very real. She did not enjoy what that could entail for them though. The vice-sheriff started to pick up the pace as the traces grew stronger. Finally, she had a definite strong readout on her analyzer, someone had performed a necromantic spell around here just a day or so ago.