by P. S. Power
She had a long time to consider that as she made her way around the barrier on foot. There was, laid into the thing very carefully, a magical shield that made it impossible to pass in the lines. From there the whole thing looked like a giant shining silver block of force. A monolith that wasn't passable in any way. In the real world, it was just a ten foot high and easily climbed looking thing, but no one sane would have gone through all that work just to leave themselves open to casual thieves or attackers with a good pair of climbing shoes.
What it would do to her if she tried it, she didn't know, but given the five layers of arcane symbols faintly glowing inside the stonework, she had to figure that it was something decently serious. At a glance she was going to guess it was a demon trap. One that distorted both space and time, as well as mental properties to lock a being inside, with very few means of escape.
As she rounded the last corner, which took about ten minutes of quick walking, she saw the inside of the place, which had a large expanse of well trimmed grass. Also a hedge maze and four large statues the size of her old house, off to the southern side of the thing. The single level ranch that she'd shared with her mother wasn't huge, but these statues were impressive, size wise. They were all Human men, facing outward in different directions, each being of a different race. Also nude, but she didn't let that bother her for once. They were, clearly, put there in order to distract her thinking, she could tell.
That would have been more unlikely if Tarsus hadn't gotten Gregor to ask her to get Zack to put them into place for him. The idea had, she knew from what the Line Walker had told her, been mainly about setting him up to fail. That would have sent ripples down the line, causing her to be involved in that as well, and probably Gregor. Zack, however, finished it in about five minutes, not even straining. That kind of miscalculation on Tarsus's part was a huge gap, she had to figure. A thing that meant he'd totally misjudged the young man that he'd been trying to manipulate. Unless of course he hadn't, and the whole thing had been about her.
The wrought iron work of the gate was well done. Made by a professional and highly skilled blacksmith, having magic worked into the metal. It was done without visible welds, making the whole thing seem like a single piece of bent iron rod. As far as she could tell, that was simply the case, but if so, whoever did the work had to be almost perfect at it. All the angles that were supposed to, matched perfectly. Humans didn't do that level of work. Even their machines barely managed it. That probably meant it was the work of The Smith. He wasn't a being that Keeley had met yet, but he was legendary for his work. If this was an example of it, she could see why.
It made the grand mansion off in the distance seem poor, which it really wasn't.
Glancing around she looked for some way to signal her arrival. She could have done a lot of things, including forcing the magics of the wall to let her in, or destroying the gate, though that would take work, and waste energy. She could also yell, scream or send up a powerful flare of energy that would be seen by a Greater Demon even through a wall. Or, of course, she realized after half a second, she could just use the intercom off to the left hand side of the thing.
The device looked out of place, being made of plastic and metal, with an old and dated look to the technology. A thing from the early eighties, meant to not last all that long. The years hadn't been kind to the casing, which had cracks and warps to it, as well as UV damage from being outside all the time. When she pressed the ivory colored call button however, there was a gentle buzzing sound from the device, which might mean it worked.
She waited two minutes, and then did it again. On the fifth time she was tempted to just keep it pressed until someone noticed her, but a voice came almost instantly.
"Hello. Sorry about the wait, I was in the other room." The voice was familiar to her. Creepy and dry, which wasn't just her projecting that on to him either.
Tarsus clearly cultivated that tone with her. Why that was, she didn't know.
"This is the Mistress of Souls, Librarian. I was wondering if we could have a little chat about what the hell you think you're doing?" Because some people didn't respond that well to politeness. Not that she was going to give him a chance to do that anyway. Keeley didn't particularly want him as an enemy, since he was too powerful to play with, but since he'd already promised to kill her if she didn't succeed at an unknown and probably nearly impossible task, there wasn't a lot to lose.
"Certainly. I'll be in the front section, near the fountain, outside. Come in. I won't be but a minute." The gate moved on its own, a flare of magical force causing it to swing silently. Smoothly enough that it was eerie, rather than dramatic.
She moved carefully, looking for traps. The thing there was that every few feet, there actually was one. Most were in the earth itself, showing themselves to her internal vision as complex sigils made of energy, too faint to be noticed by most. She was decent with that kind of thing however, so was able to not only see where not to step, but also figure out what each thing would do. There was a good level of variety to it all.
The blue designs were holding back energies that would burst forth creating devastating effects. The green ones warped time and space in interesting and no doubt lethal combinations, and the yellow created illusions.
She just stepped around them all, not wanting to waste the time it would take to defeat them. That meant, about four minutes later, because going carefully had slowed her pace, she was near the front fountain, about twenty feet from the white door that led inside. Not that she was planning to intrude that much. If the minefield that was his front yard was any indication, then the man himself was paranoid enough that anything could be in that place.
She stood, removing even the merest thought of being impatient with the Demon. It wouldn't help, and even getting a bit upset about it would give him a lever to use, if he wanted. Not that doing nothing didn't as well.
After ten more minutes the door swung open, moving inward, and an average looking young man, who seemed to be about twenty, stepped out. He had slightly olive colored skin, and his face was smiling. His brown eyes were so dark they nearly looked black, to match his hair.
Keeley nodded, getting who he was from a thousand little clues.
"Librarian."
The man let his face go slack for a second, as if he hadn't been expected to be caught out that easily. It was, she realized without bothering to think too hard, a trick. Tarsus was many things, but not stupid or lacking in forethought. In fact, he probably knew everything she was about to say, and already had not one, but several plots and plans in place, each designed to get her to do exactly what he wanted.
"Mistress of Souls. So, you have some questions for me? I'm afraid I don't have a lot of time to spend with you today, but that's always the danger of just showing up unannounced, isn't it? I do have some few moments, however. Please, ask what you will." He waved a hand at her gently, as if to hurry her along.
She grinned at him, which got the man to clasp his hand to the pocket of his blue jeans on the right hand side. There was a gentle flare of magic then, as he activated whatever was held within. That would be a field designed to stop her from grabbing him as a slave through brute force. It was good to know that he needed something like that, since the one time she'd tried, her attempts had just slid off of the man. Him needing an outside preparation meant that he might not be immune to her that way after all. Or at least he didn't know that for certain, which could still be useful to her.
"What I need to know? How about what my part in all this is supposed to be? It isn't to beat this Second Crucible. That isn't just some excuse to kill me either, or I'd already be dead, wouldn't I? The raw fact is, you don't need an excuse." She looked at the sigils arrayed in the nice lawn and noticed that the magic was already fading. There were hundreds of the things, but they were far from permanent. Not that they'd be gone in a week or two, but a year or so was about what they had in them, if not refreshed. She waved at the things, knowing that Tarsus
would understand her meaning. "You set up a mine field, and just recently, but in a way that you had to know I could avoid. That was no more than an obstacle course for me. True that could all be about slowing me down, but how likely is that? No, you have some kind of plan, and are working me to some end. So, instead of coming at me like a jerk, how about you let me in on it, so that I have some minor chance of actually surviving? Yes, it will cost you, but if you try to leave me in the dark or set me up, I'll just walk away and not play. Maybe you can work things around to make me do your bidding anyway, but that will have to make it harder than just communicating, don't you think?"
She waited, not knowing if the man, who was a Greater Demon she reminded himself, would try to kill her then, or enslave her himself. That was the biggest threat really, if he did have a solid plan like that, a hundred levels deep. If there was some reason he wanted her for whatever it was, then holding her mind would be enough to force her to do whatever he needed. Until she killed herself to break the link. Except, unlike Darla, she didn't know how to do that and come back for certain. Well, possibly there was one way, but she hadn't made any arrangements for it yet.
Zack had killed her several times and then caused her to return to life. She might be able to trade with him to do that again. It would need to be set up however, so that, if she were ever taken as a slave, he'd know to do it immediately. She'd do that for him, or Darla, so it might be something they could arrange as a simple reciprocal matter. A pact of beneficial mutual destruction.
The Librarian tilted his now young and not at all sour looking face, and smiled hugely at her. It was charming. Polite and friendly even. So, clearly, part of a trick.
"Can you come in? If we're going to handle this like sensible beings, that is? I have a place we can speak, unworried about listeners." He didn't hold out his hand, exactly, but showed her toward the door with a wave of his left hand, palm up, to show it held no weapons. That was fine, but his right was still placed against the outside of the pocket on the other side. Hard enough that it made his movements stiff and ungainly. That wasn't his normal way of behaving, so she was wary.
Ready to move, or fight. Except of course that she didn't think she'd be able to win if it came to that. Not unless she could take from him whatever was under his hand and shielding him from her. That... Didn't seem like it would be easy.
They walked, watching each other as if ready for the inevitable betrayal. The one that had to come at any moment. Two powerful beings, each knowing that their only possible chance of survival was to strike before the other had a chance to answer in kind. Neither of them took that path however, and Keeley let herself be led to a small room inside the warm and polished looking mansion. The floor was covered with rugs, all matching, and all made with care, holding intricate patterns that flared with power when she stepped on them. Not trapping her, but releasing the scent of a fresh meadow, on an almost subliminal level. A thing that wasn't meant to impress her, but simply to make the being next to her a little more pleased with his long existence.
For his part, he stared at her so closely she wondered where the trick would be. In his words, or a sudden snaring with magic? A simple punch to the head might do it as well. There was, she knew, little enough that she had that would prevent that, so she used just a tiny bit of magic to make it so that, in that moment, there was no concern with the idea. If he killed her, then she, Keeley Thomson, The Mistress of Souls, would simply be gone from the world. That didn't even ripple off of her, at the moment.
It meant that the only nervous seeming one was Tarsus, who was the most powerful of the sane Greater Demons. Or was, at any rate, the one in charge. It wasn't a thing that she'd considered much before, but a stream of information hit her, coming from outside her mind, where the mass of data she held about pretty much everything, rested. The tale there was one that was very different than she might have thought. Tarsus was indeed strong, and very wise, able to beat most of the other Greater Demons, if he had time to prepare for them.
That didn't mean he was the most powerful. In fact, all of the strongest were insane. It was, he believed, part of why they could use such abilities. Even as the plain door to the small dark room opened, he spoke, his voice far more bland than his body language spoke of.
"Exactly, Keeley. I'm much as you are. Those that cannot see reality clearly... Many of them have the ability to warp and stretch the world around them in ways that are truly frightening. Here, let me..." He closed the door behind them, the space inside pitch black for a while, except that light came through a window as soon as the lock clicked into place, showing a very humble hut from the inside.
The bare floor looked to be clean and well swept, but it was made of packed dirt. The furnishings were all made of wood, and if there was metal used in the construction at any point, she was missing it. The light didn't pass through a sheet of glass, or even oiled paper, but was just a hole in the wall. The walls were made of mud, with bits of straw and other things packed into place. It was actually cozy, for all that. Small, but still about a hundred square feet. There was a fireplace that looked to be made of mud too, but was decently modern in construction. Not made of brick, but there were stones in place, and a clever lip that allowed protection from the flame, while letting the heat escape into the rest of the tiny ancient dwelling.
That was what she stood in, she realized. After a moment, examining the place, she could feel the differences in the world around them too. The air was smoky, but still cleaner than what she was used to, for instance. That was a subtle thing, but there. The light through the window was golden in color, and not white. After a moment, she turned to Tarsus, not addressing the fact that she was, clearly, a few thousand years back in time. Probably about ten thousand.
"So, your plan?"
She was met by a skeptical look and silence, with the man's plain but wholesome Greek looking face suddenly seeming a bit less self assured as he glanced around as well. It was clear that he was looking for things that might be out of place. This might be his secret spot, or protected zone, but The Librarian wasn't a fool or mentally lazy. He examined the small room, comparing it, no doubt, to some internal record. Looking for anything that might have shifted since his last appearance there. It was pretty clear that nothing had in particular, since he relaxed, after a fashion. His right hand still clasped to his leg.
Keeley looked at that, and then shrugged.
"It isn't my plan to try and take you over, but you seem to think that I might, once you tell me about this? Or at least want me to believe that's the case for some reason. Why don't we just skip past all of that, and go with the truth? Give me the facts and I promise, I'll try not to be a giant bitch about it all."
He still just looked at her, well past any level that might be considered normal, or even flirtatious. It was into full on psycho staring before he even blinked. Then he let his hand come away from his side. Slowly. Tentatively. It probably meant that he had some other way to stop her from taking him over. Tarsus was too well prepared not to. Too smart to let her not have a chance to prove herself a friend also, it seemed.
Finally he gave her a single nod that had the feeling of a bow, without being one.
"There are four of our kind that are seldom spoken about in polite company. At all, if one is wise. The Rage, The Chaotic, Helmsman and The Void. Each is insane in their own fashion." Stopping he actually reached out for her arm slowly, and held it in his palm. "That makes it sound like a small thing, but know this, Mistress of Souls, they are perhaps the most evil things to have ever existed on this world. Half of all Human and other race problems, murder, rapes, wars, and famines, come from those four, somewhere along the chain of causality. Perhaps more than that. Their personal habits are, as you might guess, nonsensical to beings such as you and I. Which does not mean bad, but not sane by any means. Helmsman is even pleasant to be around. Her powers however will, if left unchecked, eventually lead the world to ruin. The Rage, he wishes to destroy all of reali
ty, and The Chaotic... Well, you get the base idea. You have more information on that in your mental stores, if you wish to look at it, which I suggest you do, when we're done."
She was supposed to work out what that meant, she knew, but lacked more than raw facts and a couple of guesses. Tarsus wouldn't have mentioned these beings if they didn't apply to her, would he? Except, they were all very powerful, and insane. It linked them as a group, after a fashion, as one way to categorize such things.
"And? Do you think that I'm like that? That I'll enslave the world to my will? Or that, if I did, which isn't going to happen by the way, that it would be a worse place than it is already?" It wasn't a new thought. Zack had mentioned the idea to her before, talking about forming a Greater and Lesser Demon Army to do her will, and how that might frighten one such as The Librarian.
Because really, it was a great idea, if not what she had planned exactly.
The being in front of her laughed, however. It seemed to be genuine and almost happy, too. Not that it was hard to fake that kind of thing. She did it nearly daily, herself.
"Not that. Oh, yes, you might be a problem in time, as powerful as your area of gifts makes you, but I agree, you aren't one to hold the world against its will. Even those you took before benefited from being your slave, which is rare. A fine thing too, since I truly was planning to kill you, before you stood before me and chose to fight to the death, rather than allow me to kill Lenore Hawthorn in your stead. That marked you as brave and good, you know. That single act. Of course, it was foolish, but I realized that some other plans I had might be served to have you as a compatriot. I..." There was a fake sigh that he meant to seem that way, and a smile that was nearly a boyish smirk. It was annoying she realized, since it was clear he was trying to charm her. "I think that it's been too long since I've dealt with a being such as you, Keeley. If I may call you that?"