by Alex Steele
“What is right,” Alruna snapped back. “They can help.”
“How? These monsters have killed our sisters. What can these children do?” The valkyrie thrust her sword at us and I took a step back, my magic almost getting away from me even though it wasn’t an attack.
A keening wail cut through the air. It made my ears ache and my legs almost gave out as fear filled me. And not just fear. Terror. I wanted to run but I couldn’t move. Someone dropped to the ground next to me, but I held my ground, forcing myself to keep breathing. The mayhem magic swelled up inside of me, forcing the fear back and replacing it with anger.
Abruptly, the horrible sound stopped.
I took a gasping breath, my lungs finally unfrozen. “What the hell was that?”
The taller valkyrie looked at me appraisingly, and I realized everyone but me had collapsed to the ground, their hands pressed over their ears. Even Swift. Their faces were pale and they were trembling.
“Fear.”
Forty-Eight
The valkyrie that I assumed was the leader turned back to Alruna. “Their deaths are on your head.”
Alruna simply nodded in acceptance. The three valkyrie then leapt into the air, spreading their wings and soaring over the city in the direction the terrible wail had come from.
Lopez struggled to her feet, her face still pale. “I have to find Danner. If he’s still alive, he’s probably about to start a fight he can’t handle.”
“I’ll go with you,” Viktor immediately volunteered, brushing his hand along her back in a rare gesture of affection.
“We need to find Pandora’s box,” Swift said. Her voice was shaky and her face was paler than normal, but she looked determined.
“Pandora’s box is not here,” Alruna said, confused.
“That’s just what we call it. She’s referring to the item that powers the Rune Rail,” I explained.
“I see. That is what the creature seeks, so it will be dangerous.”
“Why does it want it?” Swift asked.
“It is powerful, and meant for a god. Many were angered that Fate gave it to the mages,” Alruna said, shaking her head. “We need to move. It is not safe to linger too long in one place.”
“We’re going to the IMIB first,” Lopez said, pointing to the west. “Where should we meet you if we find Danner?”
“No clue.” I turned to Alruna. “Did you say the valkyrie could restart the Rune Rail once the survivors are found?”
She nodded. “Take anyone you can find to the first level of the Rune Rail, if it is safe.”
“We’ll do that. Good luck,” Lopez said, nodding at us.
I returned her nod. “Stay safe.”
“She will not be harmed,” Viktor said before turning and walking in the direction she’d indicated. Lopez jogged after him.
“Do we have time to look for Billy?” Swift asked as she summoned her mace. It was slightly larger than usual this time and I could sense the magic she had filled it with. A hit from that would kill the average person.
“No, not if you wish to save Moira itself,” Alruna said, looking to the sky. “If the creature takes the thing you call Pandora’s Box, the shield that protects Moira will fail, and everyone still here will perish.”
Fire erupted in the distance followed by the crack of thunder. Lightning gathered in the sky, striking three times.
“My sisters are holding it back. We have to go now if you wish to join the fight.”
I nodded. “No time like the present.”
“I cannot carry you and fly, so we will have to run.” With that, she took off. We sprinted after her. Swift pulled ahead, pacing the valkyrie, while I trailed a few feet behind them.
As we ran, the destruction only got worse. Whatever creature or creatures had done this, they hadn’t held back this time. There had to be more than one. The valkyrie seemed overwhelmed when they had been able to fight them off quickly before. After two failed attempts, whoever was behind this must have reassessed and sent in a stronger force this time.
Alruna didn’t lead us in the direction I expected. Instead of taking us to the highest level of Moira, we made our way to the middle level. Most of the Mage’s Guild’s holdings were on the top level, but there was one satellite office here. It was a large, boxy building that, officially, housed nothing more than records and a few clerks. It was innocuous and I’d never given it much thought.
As we approached, the front door opened and an unfortunately familiar magister walked out, limping slightly. He stopped a few feet from the entrance, appraising us. “What an interesting group.”
“Atticus,” Swift said coldly. “Are you hiding in there while your fellow magisters fight?”
He grinned at her, unaffected by her thinly veiled insult. “I am here for the same reason you are, I imagine. To protect the sacred heart of Moira. The creature is coming here, the valkyrie cannot hold it off forever, no matter how...dedicated,” he said, his eyes flicking toward Alruna with interest.
Another wail split the air, much closer this time. Fear rolled through me in a rush, making my heart clench in my chest. I whipped around in the direction of the cry, my magic swirling around me uselessly. Alruna had moved between the sound and Swift, grabbing my partner by the shoulder and dragging her back up to her feet. The valkyrie’s touch seemed to offer some kind of protection because Swift stopped trembling immediately.
I wasn’t sure why the fear didn’t affect me as strongly as her, but I suspected it was the mayhem magic. It shouldn’t have been able to protect me from fear like that. It shouldn’t be able to do half the things it did.
The only person that seemed truly unaffected was Atticus. He leaned toward the awful sound with a sick smile on his face.
Just like last time, the wail ended abruptly. Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating this level of the city for an instant. Silhouetted against the backdrop was a creature almost too large to comprehend. It was bigger than the phoenix we’d faced with monstrous wings that stretched two city blocks. From this distance, I couldn’t tell what it was, only that it was big, and it could fly.
Fire poured from its mouth as it reared back, swiping a clawed arm at a valkyrie that flew too close. The flames battered the shields the valkyrie had cast in an attempt to prevent the city from worse damage. A black swarm of smaller creatures flew around it, attacking the valkyrie in groups and forcing them to land.
The beast launched itself into the air, shrinking down as it soared over the buildings. The valkyrie attempted to chase it, but the smaller monsters blocked their path, creating an impassable wall.
The creature shot toward us, and with it came a wave of fear. It pressed down on me like a physical weight. I took an involuntary step back as everything went dark.
Then, all I could see were the flames.
Forty-Nine
The house shook around me as I ran downstairs wearing nothing but a pair of sleep pants. The shriek of the wards spurred me to go faster. We were under attack. They’d promised the fighting wouldn’t make it this far but they must have been wrong.
Fear made my hands shake but I was ready to fight no matter what they thought. I could help, and prove to them the chaotic magic I was born with was useful. If I helped tonight, they might even let me join in the real fighting, out on the front lines.
The sounds of fighting grew louder as I raced through the house, heading toward the west wing. My feet slipped on the marble floor as the house shook again. Thunder cracked outside as if someone had summoned a storm.
I ran around a corner and the doors to the banquet hall loomed ahead of me. They were open and magic flashed inside, cracking through the air like lightning in streaks of red and orange.
Terror raced through me and I almost turned around and ran, but I couldn’t leave them behind. I had to help my parents. On shaking legs, I ran to the doors but stopped a few feet away. I couldn’t see inside because of the smoke, but I could see who was laying right in front of me, just inches from the thresho
ld.
My mother wasn’t moving. Her eyes were wide open and a trickle of blood dripped from her slack mouth. I stared at her, expecting her to sit up and run after me. She couldn’t be dead. She was invincible.
A loud crash startled me and flames rolled out of the doorway. I dropped to my knees, wrapping my arms around my head as the heat rushed over me, stinging my skin. My father shouted as if he were in pain and I tried to run into the room but a hand closed around my arm. It was Master Hiko.
“You have to help him!” I shouted in panic.
“I can’t, I can only help you,” my teacher said, yanking me backward and throwing me over his shoulder.
He turned and ran. I struggled against his grip, reaching out toward my mother. Not her body. I couldn’t call it that. It was her. She had to still be alive, but she wasn’t moving. My father was still screaming.
Anger rushed through me and a voice whispered in the darkness.
Fight it.
Fight...it….
Goosebumps prickled along my skin as I stood in the strangely cold hallway. A window was open, but Sakura would never leave a window like that in the middle of winter. Snow had blown in and piled up against the delicate shoji divider. I took a step and my bare feet hit a cold trickle of melted snow.
I walked as quietly as I could down the hall, every sense telling me there was danger ahead. The door to the sitting room was open and strangely bent as if there had been a fight.
As I drew close, a strange, metallic smell filled my nose. My heart thudded in my chest and I broke into a run, hurtling through the door in a panic.
Hiroji stood in front of the windows, his hands and white katana covered in blood. His eyes were dull and glassy.
“What have you done?” I choked out.
“I did what I was ordered to do.” He pointed to the left.
I turned slowly, my heart pounding in my chest. The couch blocked my view so I walked slowly toward it. My toes hit something wet. It was warm, unlike the melted snow.
My breath caught in my throat as I saw them. They’d been cut in half, blood and gore spilling out on the floors we’d scrubbed every day as part of our training. Master Hiko’s face was frozen in surprise and pain.
It felt like a punch when Hiroji’s katana drove through me. I looked down in surprise at the blood-stained blade sticking out of my stomach.
“Wh...why…” I gasped, pain and confusion warring for dominance.
“You were never my brother,” he whispered, driving the sword farther through me.
You are more pathetic than I realized...
A flash of light startled me and I stumbled backward. I couldn’t breathe and my heart was hammering in my chest so fast I thought it might explode. The fear pressed in around me, crawling along my skin.
Use the anger to your advantage…
Darkness swept over me and all conscious thought faded away.
I stood in front of Fate. His hand was wrapped around Swift’s throat and he held her off the ground, her feet kicking futilely as her face turned blue.
“She has to die, Blackwell, it’s her destiny,” Fate said, grinning at me as he tightened his grip. She clawed at his hands, choking and spluttering.
I couldn’t move.
He really is an asshole, isn’t he?
Anger rose up in me again and the vision twisted, blurring in front of my eyes.
This wasn’t real.
Ah, you finally realize the obvious. Congratulations.
I blinked and found myself laying on the ground encased in a semi-opaque shield. A fight raged above me but I couldn’t see anything but streaks of light. The unnatural fear the strange monster had brought with it still crawled along my skin. Every instinct I had was telling me to run or hide, but I pushed all that away and took a deep breath. Sakura had taught me how to face the fear. The scrape of concrete under my fingers grounded me.
A flaming chunk of metal slammed into the shield and I flinched away, almost rolling into Swift, who lay prone on the ground beside me. She twitched and groaned, still caught in a nightmare.
I grabbed her shoulders and flipped her over, shaking her hard to try to wake her up. Magic sparked in her eyes as they rolled back in her head. I slapped her once, hard, and she jerked, her eyes focusing on me for the first time.
“What…” Her voice was hoarse and weak.
“Fight it, Lexi. It’s not real. I need you to get up.”
I glanced around us, horrified by the amount of damage done while I’d been unconscious. My lungs burned from the smoke and I couldn’t see more than twenty feet in any direction right now.
Another wail rent the air and a wave of sheer terror rolled over us. My vision wavered for a moment but anger rose up in me, drowning out the fear. Swift’s eyes simply rolled back in her head again and she went limp.
I laid her back down gently and slipped out of the safety of the shield. The fight hadn’t stopped when we’d been incapacitated and I wouldn’t let Alruna fight alone.
As soon as I stepped out of the shield, a small, black creature rushed toward me. Sharp claws glinted in the light of the fires raging all around us. I jumped to the side, letting the mayhem magic lash out from my hand like a whip. I cut the creature in half as it darted recklessly after me. It didn’t bleed as it fell to the ground in two pieces.
Up close I was able to identify the creatures as wyverns. Like unicorns, they could be summoned. Also like unicorns, they were vicious little assholes that liked to eat anyone they saw. They had the head of a snake and wings attached to a stocky body covered in sharp ridges. There were hundreds of them flying overhead. A group of valkyries in the distance were surrounded by the things. Every time they struck one down, two more took its place.
Atticus was nowhere to be seen, so he’d either been eaten or he’d run away.
I had no more time to think before two more of the wyverns charged me. Ducking under their swooping strikes, I led them away from the shield that still protected Swift. My magic seemed to have created that on its own. I could feel the tug on my magic that sustained it, but it was bearable.
My feet slipped on the glass and rubble that littered the ground. I knew the level of Moira that I was in, but the glass towers I should have seen had been toppled. The extent of the destruction had made it unrecognizable.
Intensely missing my katana, I was forced to fight off the wyverns with quick blasts of mayhem magic. I was used to a blade in my hand and felt naked without it. One of the little bastards darted in from behind, its claws dragging across my shoulder. The cut was just deep enough to sting. A tendril of mayhem magic whipped out from my palm, cutting it in half.
A battle-cry cut through the air and Alruna descended from the sky in a blaze of white. Lightning raced from her outstretched arms, striking three of the pests at once. They crashed into an already damaged building and tumbled out of sight.
Flames blocked out the fake sky above me. It was blackened and cracked, damaged by the fighting. The heat from the raging fire made the skin of my face burn. I raced toward Alruna but slid to a stop as a hulking black creature slammed into the side of the building Pandora’s Box was held in, shaking the ground with the impact.
Its body was covered in obsidian scales that seemed to drink in the light, making the area around it darker. The wings were ridged with sharp spikes, matching the ones that ran down its back to the massive, writhing tail.
The creature’s head was all wrong. It had no eyes and while the body was shaped like a dragon, the head was that of a bull. Horns protruded from the sides of the head where the eyes should have been. One had broken off halfway down leaving a jagged, sharp edge.
It tore at the walls with long, sharp claws, ripping away chunks of concrete. Alruna dove down from above, her wings folded tight against her body. Lightning arced from her sword, striking the creature in the back. It shrieked in pain and swept its tail up toward her, missing by inches as she twisted midair to avoid the strike. She blocked a hit
from its wing with her shield but the blow sent her tumbling back.
Without my katana, I felt useless, but I wouldn’t stand by doing nothing. All that training had been to take control of my magic. I hadn’t wanted to test it this soon, but life hadn’t waited to be convenient lately. I lifted my arms, letting the mayhem magic flow from my chest with a slow exhale. There was no need to worry about collateral damage in the midst of all this destruction. All that mattered was killing this abomination.
That’s the spirit, a voice rasped inside my head. It was deep and strange, nothing like my own internal monologue.
And now I was hearing voices. Great.
The creature’s massive head turned to me. Smoke curled from the nostrils as it sniffed in my direction. I wasn’t sure if it was completely blind, despite the lack of eyes.
It shifted its weight, leaning toward me. I took a tentative step to the side and its head followed my movement curiously. The side of the building began to crumble under its bulk as it adjusted its footing, muscles bunching under the thick scales. The creature’s movements were almost feline. I pulled hard on the magic inside of me, wishing now that I’d managed to unbind the power I’d taken from the warlock.
The creature leaped toward me, green fire bellowing from its jaws. I immediately summoned a shield and braced myself.
Alruna charged in from the left with a piercing battle-cry, her sword and shield glowing brightly against the darkness. Her left leg was streaked from blood still dripping from beneath her armor. She must have been injured while I was out of it. The creature ignored her completely, its full attention and anger focused on me.
The flames collided with my half-formed shield, rolling up and over it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the creature’s massive tail swinging toward me. My shield had held off the flames, but it wouldn’t hold up to that. I sprinted out of the way. A black cloud followed me, surging toward the spiked ball on the end of the tail.
The magic was moving without my direction. This was more than just my instincts taking over. The mayhem magic was making a choice. Something shifted inside of me at the realization and I heard the same dark laugh I’d heard after my katana had been broken.