In Absentia – 21.1
Author: Wildbow

In Absentia – 21.1 | Pale

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“Is everyone okay?” Lucy asked, as the door closed.  “Any injuries?”

She started to move, and Avery grabbed her by the sleeve.

“Good rule of thumb of the Paths?  Moment we land and arrive, stay put and assess.  Unless, I don’t know, a giant boulder starts rolling toward you, obviously.”

“I’m still a bit in disbelief that you’re into this,” Verona said.

The area was a badly dried out seaside town, by the looks of it.  She could smell fish in the air, and the ground was parched, dirt without grass.  She could hear the water, but craning her head to look between buildings that looked like they were half driftwood, she couldn’t see the water.

She tilted her head, then lifted her chin.

The ocean was above them, tall waves crashing and rolling upside-down a few hundred feet above their heads.  With the weather being what it was, it took on a steely blue-gray color with white froth and peaks, in contrast to the brown and white-tan of the dirt.

A Lost ocean suspended above them wasn’t even the biggest thing hanging over their heads.  Her earring caught some chatter in the distance.

“There are Lost around, I think?”

“Yeah.  Populated area.  Peaceful, I think,” Avery said.

“What do we even do?” Lucy asked.  She looked back at the door.

“It’s okay,” Avery said.  “We have a bit of time, I don’t think they can follow us through.”

Avery put the bracelet on and the door disappeared.

Lucy still felt amped up from the sudden violence.  She looked at Verona, who slumped back, leaning against the door that was left behind when their way in disappeared, rubbing at her palm.

Her own hands were shaking.  Lucy folded her arms, tucking hands in against her body.

“Injuries?” Lucy asked, once she’d gathered herself.

“Minor,” Verona said.  She met Lucy’s eyes.  “For me at least.  My cat might’ve died.”

“I know.”

“I kinda really liked her, she was cool.  What the fuck?”

“I know.  But she’s come back from being badly hurt before, right?”

“Nine lives?” Avery asked.

“Should’ve worked that into her somehow.  What the fuck.”  More of a statement than a question from Verona, there.

“Edith too.  That’s- I think Matthew’s going to be hurt, hearing about it.  Especially because I think it might’ve been one of the best parts of Edith that just got murdered back there,” Avery said.  “Even if they’re not together anymore.”

Avery grunted, rubbing a bit at her side.

“Ave?” Lucy asked.

“Battered.  I got a bit beat up by the traces of Abyssal crap inside Edith, as we hurried through.  I’m guessing I’m going to be a mess of bruises tomorrow.”

“I’ve got healing potions,” Verona said.

“Not to be hmm… gross?  But those really feel like they take all the pain and injury and they make it so you’re crapping it out the next day, and it’s like… a tide of sharp-edged gravel,” Avery said.

“Yeah,” Verona replied.  “I can work on it.  At least the newest batches heal you as the gravel shreds what it passes through, so there’s just the pain part of it.  Fuck.  I can’t go back to my Demesne until this is over, now?”

“Probably not,” Lucy said.  “Maybe for a short stop, I might have ideas.”

“Fuck.  Are you hurt?  You’re bleeding.”

Lucy checked her shoulder and arm.  It was hidden while her arm was folded, but a blade had gone through her sweatshirt and dragged along her arm, and a homunculus claw had gotten her calf, while she’d been blinded from Seth’s little curse.

“Not enough I want to drink one of those potions.  Save ’em.  They might be a limited supply,” Lucy replied.  “I’ll need to stop soon to patch this up.”

Verona nodded.  “That’s a priority, then.”

“What else?” Lucy asked.  “Medical care, figuring out where we’re going, getting in touch with family, strategy?”

“Sounds about right,” Verona said.  “And it’s late, like what, three or four in the morning our time?”

Lucy nodded.

“Someplace to sleep as part of that, then,” Avery said.  “Want to find a place to sit, stop, and talk?  Get that bleeding stopped, figure it out?”

Lucy tested her weight on the one leg, which was starting to hurt more since she’d stopped paying attention to it, and nodded.  “Yeah.  You know your way around here?’

“No.  But the Garricks did a quick vetting of it.  We’ve been collaborating and comparing notes, figuring out what doors are good safe ones to take.  This one was in the batch of notes before last.”

“Hm.  There could be a bad surprise then?  Ocean falling on us?” Lucy asked.

“Maybe.  Snow?”

Snowdrop hopped down from Avery’s shoulder, becoming human.  She straightened, then sorted herself out.  She had a long coat with a hood, teeth at the edges of the hood, and removable sections for the ears, which were off, letting her have headphones on.  She wore a scarf that looked semi-high-fashion, with loose, fat braids, but the material looked like it might’ve been trash bags.  She had a strand of similar material braided into her hair at one side of her head, and heavy eyeliner, smudged at the lower lids.

Her sweatshirt under the coat read ‘(Faked) Death Metal Screaming’.

“Looking good,” Avery said.  “Lead the way?  Use those Lost instincts to keep an eye out for trouble?”

“I’m good at that, which is weird because I’m not usually involved with trouble,” Snowdrop said.

“It’s a good skill to practice,” Avery said.

“Verona?” Snowdrop asked, “I’m glad if your stupid cat is dead.”

“Thanks Snow.”

Snowdrop turned, looking around, and picked up the pace, walking head of them, hands jammed into her pockets.

“Hey Snow, are you leveling up?” Verona asked.

“No,” Snowdrop said.  “Don’t think so.”

“Goblin sage stuff, promenade,” Avery said.  “And as I grow, she does too.”

“I wanted to look low key shitty while out here, dealing with Lost and stuff.  Lie low,” Snowdrop said.

They’d been dropped off in the back end of some neighborhood, and had to find their way to the main street.  There were a few Lost around, wearing clothes that were very often in dark earthy tones and ratty.  All wore pieces of dead fish and sea creatures, fishbones, fish heads, scales strung on strings, and seashells.  All looked dehydrated and a bit chapped.

Lucy didn’t get the impression any were hostile, but most didn’t look especially friendly, either.

Avery held up a painted coin, approaching three men who were leaning against a fence, silent as they doled out what looked like licorice candies.  “Coin for answers to some questions?”

A shirtless man with a thick beard as dry as straw, fish heads on a string around his neck, and goldfish bowls for eyes put out his hand.  Avery handed it over.  His voice was a rasp.  “Ask.”

“Any danger, things to watch out for?  Imminent deadlines, changes in the nature of this place?”

“Tide’s coming.”

“Right.  Any towers near completion?”

“Belltower down south, I hear.”

“So we’ll hear it coming?”

He nodded.

“Any place to sit down and chat here?”

“The Kettle.”

He pointed.

“Any tips, suggestions?”

“If you’re still around when the tide comes in, make sure you’re dressed for it.”

“Fish stuff?” Verona asked, pointing at the fish head.

“Sure.  Want a tar candy?”

“Is it sweet?” Verona asked.

“No.  Not sweet.”

“Sure, thanks.”

He handed over the candy.  Avery paid him.

They parted ways.

“So what’s the deal with the tower?” Verona asked.  She licked the candy.  “Oh, nicotine tar flavored.”

“Don’t eat that, Ronnie,” Lucy said.

“It’s kind of cool that instead of smoking they suck on a hard candy.  For a certain meaning of ‘cool’.”

“The tower,” Avery said, once she could get around the digression, “gets finished, breaks the surface tension of the water, and then everything comes down.  It gets pretty intense.  Adorea Garrick, Jude’s cousin, scouted out this place, brought family members, they escape roped out because there was debris in the churning water.”

“Right.”

“But I think we’re okay for a short stop and regroup.”

The Kettle was similar to most of the other buildings, but there was a water collection system that seemed to draw water down through a series of ropes, then apparently boiled it.  Steam surrounded the area, and it looked like a good portion of the community of this driftwood settlement liked hanging around for a humidity that wasn’t in the negatives.

Inside it felt like a real place, if a bit warm.  A saloon, or bar, or seaside restaurant, but with steam hissing in the back.  Half the tables were occupied.

“In a bit of a rush, doing some work on the side,” the server said.  He was a tousled, damp anthropomorphic, taxidermied cat with a fishbone necklace.  He slapped some menus and a pitcher of water down.  “You wouldn’t happen to be Snowdrop?”

“I’m not,” Snowdrop said.

“Wonderful.”

“Dear!” a woman in the kitchen called out.  “If we can’t get the compressor working we won’t be able to finish the delivery, and if we can’t do that-”

“I know, I know.  It’s Snowdrop.”

“Oh lovely, we heard how you and your human dealt with Wonderkand.  They would have corporatized and privatized one of our main travel hubs.”

“I’m actually all about capitalism, baby,” Snowdrop said, smiling awkwardly.

“Some of us have to make do.  You saved us some trouble, though I wouldn’t have complained if the way to Hell and High Water was closed.  In-laws.”

The wife, a woman with five cats haphazardly climbing around her, two with dead fish in their mouths, poked her head out of the kitchen, narrowing her eyes.

“She heard me.  I’m going to work on that compressor, wave if you have your order.  It’s on the house.”

Lucy watched Verona watch the server and wife interacting.  Verona ran hands through her hair, resting them on the back of her head, eyes closed.  Lucy reached over and rubbed Verona’s arm.

“Hm?” Verona grunted.

“I’m sorry about Julette.”

“Reading my mind now?”

“I just know you.”

“Thinking about Edith too, if you need hints.”

“Yeah.  And how home will be, if they’ll keep the deal, if… there’s so much,” Lucy said.  “We should talk.  Lay it all out there.  We really haven’t had the chance since they started messing with nightmares.”

“I signaled for Alpeana to get in touch with the creature that gives rude dreams.  Communicated a bit to Edith, to try to get her on side, get her to share info.”

“Get her to show up,” Lucy said.  “Ohhh.  I think I had one of those dreams, I didn’t- I didn’t connect.”

“About?” Verona asked.

“I’m not going to tell you how the dream went.  It stopped before anything, anyone…” Lucy trailed off.

“Same.  Frustrating.”

Lucy shrugged.  She leaned back.  “Crap.  It was right on the backs of the Wild Hunt stuff and Musser, I figured it was my subconscious telling me I had a lot on my mind.  But it was you, trying to tell me what Law stuff to focus on.”

“Yeah.”

“I read up on some of that anyway, but it wasn’t specific.”

“Did you get yours?” Verona asked Avery.  “Sexy dream messenger?”

“One.  But I was so startled at having a dream like that I woke myself up.  He only got part of a message to me.  Then he didn’t show again.  I kind of kicked myself when I realized.”

Verona sighed heavily.  “And after that, we figured Chuck was keeping an eye out, we couldn’t do it too much.”

“Double down on the market stuff?  Did I get that right?”

“Yeah.”

“I tried.  Using a lot of my free time to make connections, get people on board, build something.  Did I… was that okay?”

“That was good,” Verona said.  She put out a hand.

Avery looked down at it.

“What?” Verona asked her.  “It’s a high five.”

Avery gave her a high five.

“So,” Lucy said.  “What first?  We each had ideas in private.  But maybe we should talk about-”

She paused as the business owner passed the table, setting down a first aid kit.  “Oh.  Thank you.  Do we-” she turned to Avery, leaning in, “should we tip?”

“On the house,” the owner said, before picking up speed to jog to the back, because his wife sounded distressed.

“Celebrity has its advantages,” Verona said.

Lucy peeled her coat off, leaving it inside out over the back of her chair, and then pulled off her sweatshirt.

“Ooh, you did the runework thing,” Verona said.  Lucy was wearing a tank top underneath.

“Usually, now.”

“Cool.  Twist around, give me that arm.”

“Do we talk about plans for immediate survival?” Lucy asked avery.  “Or our plans?”

“My plans are our plans for survival, so we can start with that,” Avery said.

“Efficient,” Verona remarked.

Avery shifted position in her seat.  “Besides the market thing, I’ve been getting in touch with people and figuring out how things are right now.  There are two Lordships on the borders of the Carmine’s territory which are not keen on the Carmine.  That’s Ottawa and some wilderness to the west with an Other in charge.”

Lucy nodded.

“Those are places we can go, I don’t think we should stay for too long,” Avery said.  “That brings trouble, if Charles catches on to where we are and sends anyone out, and if we as guests bring trouble on our hosts, it’s a big karmic debt owed to them.”

“Makes sense,” Lucy said.  “We might want to hold onto those.  They might be good vantage points.”

“Big priority,” Verona said, as she swabbed at the knife cut.  “I think we call in the favor Wye owes us for trying to help Reid and Raquel.  He takes himself and his group off the table for helping the Carmine find and track us.  Nicolette, I think, won’t work for them either.”

“Good,” Lucy said.

“My line of thinking,” Avery told them, “Is we can’t be in his jurisdiction, or if we are, he’s going to gainsay or forswear us.  We’ve got places we can go in the meantime.”

“Just… staying with randoms?” Lucy asked.

“Friends and acquaintances.  Some are good, some are bad, some Paths I think are okay to stay at longer-term, some places it’s just a Lordship we know doesn’t like the Carmine, or is grateful we stopped Musser, I have money on my card, from the work and trades I did with the Garricks to my parents.”

Lucy nodded slowly.  “So, like… who?”

“Garricks.”

“Figured.”

“Zed offered.  Bit small, but… he and Brie live outside the Carmine Exile’s range”

Lucy nodded.  Awkward, being dependent on someone, when there was less of a quid-pro-quo.

“Tymon, Talos, and Jorja’s,” Avery said.

“The people who summon supermassive drug and alcohol spirits?” Lucy asked.

“Stop moving your arm,” Verona said.

“They’re outside the Carmine’s range, I floated the idea of coming to talk to them about a deal that would impact our market.”

“Again, drug dealers.”

“I know, but they deal in other things, we could draw a hard line on bringing drugs in.  Tymon said we could stay over for a few nights, would probably be best to do it that way, because his parents are flaky and we’d kind of have to hang around and wait until they decided they were free.”

“That sounds so uncomfortable,” Verona said.  She was finishing Lucy’s arm.

“Yeah,” Lucy said.  “We should run it by them so we’re not surprising them.  It’s karmic law again.  If you’re a guest and you bring trouble to the doorstep…”

“Right,” Avery said.  “We don’t want to say, you know, ‘surprise, we’re enemies with a greater power who might send people or Others after us’.”

“Would upset them and might mean people who’d say yes hear and say no instead,” Verona said.  “Done.  Gimme that leg.”

Lucy pulled off her boot, hiked up the leg of her jeans and put her foot in Verona’s lap, leg turned so the claw mark on the calf was visible.  “Do you need bandages or anything, Ave?”

“Painkiller, um-”

Lucy held up two bottles.  “I don’t remember which ones don’t work as well on you because you’re a redhead or whatever.”

“Semi-redhead, yeah.  They’re Lost painkillers, maybe they’ll work,” Avery said.  She reached out and Lucy passed over a bottle.  Avery read the label.  “I need water.”

“Costs,” Verona said, tapping the menu.  Ninety percent of it was water with flavoring, and the rest was a listing of six different options for food.  “But he said it’s on the house?  Unless that’s a Lost trick?”

“Seemed like a trick,” Snowdrop said.

They waved down the waiter, checked, and ordered.

“Who else can we stay with, then?” Lucy asked.

“Liberty Tedd.  They’ve got lots of empty houses.”

“Okay.  Not too surprised at that one,” Lucy said.

“Knock knock, hey, I know we’ve got your dad kind of in prison back at our place, but can we crash at yours?” Verona feigned a voice as she said it.

“Unironically, though,” Avery said.  “There’s a whole lot of options here, ranging from socially uncomfortable stays with strangers or ex-enemies to comfortable and fun, and, there’s options that are hm, practically in a castle to, I guess kind of four of us crammed on a pull out couch.  Liberty’s… I think if we give her warning, that’s a good option for somewhere to stay that’s comfortable and convenient.”

Lucy nodded.

“Florin Pesch?” Avery asked, sounding unsure.

“Uhhhh,” Verona said, looking up from Lucy’s leg.  “What?”

“He also owes us one, and from what he said when I floated the idea of stopping in to talk with him or get away from a bad situation… back before Musser, actually, he sounded keen.”

“Of course he did,” Verona said.  “I’m supergluing this cut after I clean it.”

“Sure,” Lucy said.

“Florin said if we needed a break, he’d take us to a nice restaurant, set us up in five star accommodations, laundry, supplies, whatever we need.”

Lucy sighed.  “This isn’t a creepy body snatcher, it’s not a mind controller, it’s not a doppleganger.  It’s the guy from Thunder Bay who organizes and uses those Others?  Puppeteer, corrupter, whatever?”

“Yeah.”

Lucy sighed again.  Her leg jerked as Verona pinched the cut more closed while putting the superglue on it to seal it that way.

“Deedee and Ben,” Avery said.

“Heck no,” Snowdrop said.

“Aw, what?” Verona asked.

“Toadswallow’s acquaintances.  He grew up in the same Warrens neighborhood as Deedee, she helped out with the initial Musserite invasion.  I didn’t get a ton of chances to talk to her.”

“She worked as a bump in the night, scaring kids from under beds,” Verona said.

“I’m not sure if it’s just tonight’s mood but I’m really tempted to be sarcastic,” Lucy said.

Snowdrop looked agitated.  “She sucks, and her husband’s exactly what you’d expect.  She hates the guy, says he’s a small dicked loser who hates her guts, treats her like shit.  Everything you don’t want a relationship to be.”

“He’s human,” Verona remarked.

Lucy raised her eyebrows.  “Sure.”

Avery explained, “They’ve got a new house with guest room, plus a pull out couch, he’s got a stocked library, he works as a researcher of the practice, actually.  Some stuff that gets into the same territory as undercities and other knotted spaces.  He has an alchemy setup in his workshop, I dunno if he’d let you borrow it, Ronnie, but if we needed something specific I think he’d be cool letting us access it.  But mainly… hmmm.”

“Hmm,” Lucy echoed the sentiment.

“I’m just- okay, fully honest, I can’t imagine that visit being anything but awkward, given we barely know them except kind of barely through Toadswallow-”

“Won’t be fun at all,” Snowdrop said.

“-but it’s on the list as a place we can go if we decide we need to do some pinch research or something.  If we need to find a practice, or develop a big diagram again, or brew something up, I get the impression they’d be cool helping.”

“So uncool, so boring,” Snowdrop said.  “Let’s not go there anytime soon.”

“While we’re doing all that, we can sound them out.  I don’t figure people are super excited about what Charles is doing.  Even outside our acquaintances and friends and the Lords with territory near his,” Lucy said.

Avery nodded with some emphasis.  “And I’m willing to bet if we push for it, our work on the Founding of Kennet found would be interesting enough for some practitioners to put us up for a night and hear us out.”

“McCauleigh said people want to see how you fight, Luce.”

“Recently or-?”

“She’s still incommunicado.”

Lucy nodded.

“But she said it.  Could be a similar deal.  You fought Anthem and did okay.”

“Not really that okay.  I’d be worried about going somewhere with people interested in that stuff and, dunno, getting thrown in a fighting arena or something.  Do we really think we need fifty different places to stay?”

“That depends on your plans,” Avery said.  “I figured I’d do my thing, working at the flanks.”

“It’s good,” Verona said.  “Makes sense.  I thought we’d have until the New Year, I’d have a few days to crack out some protection for my Demesne… kind of went against plan there.”

“Can we use that?” Avery asked.

Lucy shook her head.  “Truces are a bit different, and they’ll eat a cost, I guess.  Which I’m guessing they’ll handwave away because Charles is the Judge.”

“Which gets into my plan,” Verona said.

“Please,” Lucy replied.

“Let me finish your leg so I can give this my full attention, bandage-”

“Not too tight,” Avery said.  “Pressure but don’t cut off circulation.”

“Didn’t you take a first aid class as part of being on the hockey team?”

“Coach made us, yeah.  And we had the one in health class, which was kind of ass.”

“Do CPR, fail?  Do it again, until you get it right, while everyone stares at you,” Lucy said.

“You should be doing this,” Verona told Avery.

“I know,” Avery replied.  “Figured you’d want to have your hands full.”

Verona finished up, used the metal clip to secure the bandage in place, then pulled Lucy’s jeans down.  Lucy put her foot into her boot, then laced it up.

She was glad to have it on.  She couldn’t help but worry that this place would suddenly get swept up in an entire ocean’s worth of water, and if she lost a boot now… would she be able to get another anytime soon?

Their water was delivered, in glasses beaded with moisture, with ice, and the flavoring in some glasses appeared in layers, like a cocktail Lucy’s Aunt Heather would make for fun with her mom.  There were some dried sardines, nuts, and chips.  Avery asked about and then downed the pills.

“Charles is leaning on the other Judges.  They’re complicit,” Verona said, once the coast was clear.  “And when it comes to the Carmine, like, we know what that contest entails.  We know it’s bloody, we know it demands an Other or practitioner capable of violence, and, like, my thought process here?  I got the impression Lucy was stumped.”

“Who do we know that is capable of winning, who we trust, who we’re also willing to sacrifice?” Lucy asked.  “Because it fundamentally changes their existence and puts them out of reach.”

“Semi-out-of-reach,” Avery said.  “Charles knows those students, right?”

“He knows a lot, he’s basically omniscient as far as all things Judge go,” Verona said.

“Pretty sure you know what I mean,” Avery said, unimpressed.

“I do.”

“I don’t want to put someone through that.  Not a Dog Tag, not any goblins we know, not Montague, not Guilherme,” Lucy said.  Her thumb hooked under the chain at her neck and ran along its length until she’d pulled the tags out.

Verona nodded.  “So, my line of thinking?  Un-stumping it?  We don’t.  We kick the supporting structures out from around him, put pressuring structures in their place.  We challenge each of the three other Judges, we give them the chance to swear to lean on Charles, ask him to repay what he’s taken, and if they say no, we replace them with those that will.  He’s taken so much from each of them, I think we can put him in a situation where he’s so deep in the hole he can’t do anything.”

“And, what, Charles stays the Carmine Exile, he stays omniscient, but he’s so far in debt he can’t do much more than what he absolutely has to?  He’s forced to watch while we grow past him and undo everything he did?”

“That’s kind of dark,” Avery said.

“I thought you might like that part,” Verona told Lucy.

“I… kind of do, but I have reservations.”

“Like, Isn’t that multiplying the same problem times three?” Avery asked.

“A bit,” Verona said.

“That, sure, and when we asked if our plans worked, Nicolette said there were wrinkles.  I think I see one already.  Charles has already bounced back pretty damn hard from a powerless situation once.”

Verona leaned back in her seat, frowning.  “Right.”

“There’s more to it?” Lucy asked.  “You’ve- I’m expecting and hoping that you planned around some of the obvious issues.”

“Yeah.  Less that one with Charles possibly breaking free again.  Um. The scope and style of those other Judges makes them easier targets, I think.  Easier to find replacements for.  Or make replacements for.”

Verona got her bag and dug around inside.  She extricated her book of spells, and found the right page.

Lucy, twisting her head around, stuck a finger on the correct page and mostly closed the book.

There was art on the cover, of a guy with his shirt off, sitting on the couch, arms draped out to either side on the back of the couch, head tilted back, long hair spilling out around it.  His pants or jeans looked like the were slung low enough, sans any apparent underwear, that another few millimeters might’ve required drawing other anatomy.

“I added that part,” Verona said, tapping a dotted-line spell diagram that was drawn on his chest, with lines suggesting blood running down from it.

“I thought that was a girl at first,” Avery said.

“Anselm.  He’s got, I dunno, like, long hair, I’ll see him rocking a girl’s top sometimes, but it’s more like, if a guy’s willing to toe and sometimes push the line and still be super confident, that’s more masculine, you know?  More guy?  To me at least.  But he’s all hard lines and skin pulled tight over lithe, narrow body?”

Verona made a chef’s kiss sound.

“Cool,” Lucy said.  “Good art.  Going to be hard to explain if we’re ever loaning out our notebooks.”

“This is an original Verona spellbook.  If someone besides you two wants my notes, they can get scanned or copied pages.”

“I’m picturing the looks my family would give me,” Avery said.

“Julette did a matching one on the back cover.”

Lucy let Verona flip things over, moving her hand to keep her finger between the pages.  Anselm in a lying-down pose, similar deal, slightly different style.

She thought of Wallace.  Wallace had been pulled away for a Christmas visit with family, without warning, and he’d come back now to find her gone and incommunicado.

She hoped to get a message to him, even if she was feeling more and more like it was a lost cause.  It went back to what her mom had said about being black.  That everyone had their ups and downs, and racism, overt or institutional or subtle, would sometimes make her downs worse and any ups harder to get.  Then where everyone everywhere faced those ups and downs, and everyone everywhere occasionally ran into stuff they couldn’t get past, or they’d have things they wanted that they couldn’t get, she would face more.  She could try her all and give it all, and there was a chance she wouldn’t get as much credit for her effort or talents where someone white would.

There had been lighter, brighter stuff, and encouragement to give her all, but a part of it had been a ‘you’re old enough for me to be real with you’ talk.  She couldn’t even remember the prompt.  Booker being brought home by police after partying out on the ski hill?  Maybe made a little more pessimistic by her mom struggling with work around then.  Not even having the pharmaceutical aide home visit job.

She’d run into it with school.  She’d halfway expected to eventually run into it with work, like her mom had, or being listened to with health stuff, like her dad had.

She hadn’t, even with the stuff with her stepdad Paul, expected it to happen with a high school relationship.

Avery and Verona were talking.  Taking a break from everything to talk about relationships and boys.

“…isn’t that more complicated?” Avery asked.  “When you said you didn’t want the complication of a relationship?”

“Right, but, it’s upfront complicated,” Verona said.  “Contract, laying it out there.  We use protection, he’s free to be with whoever, but if he is, I want him to be honest and get tested, that’s complicated because Kennet below has crappy services, but he can come to Kennet above… but once that’s all set up and being done, it’s easier, right?”

“I don’t even know,” Avery said.

“I mean, I don’t want to say it like it’s a fact and get gainsaid, but… isn’t it easier?  Compared to living with someone, having them in your face all the time, competing over the toilet, worrying if they smell your farts?”

“I think you get used to their farts.”

“That’s worse.  Then every meal at home is pretty much a meal with someone, practically, every birthday is a birthday with someone?  And that someone’s pre-decided?  You resemble each other more over time?  And they want half your space?  How much of your time?  It feels like having an overly affectionate houseguest with you all the time.  At least with McCauleigh, Peckersnot and Julette, I can tell ’em to fuck off.”

“It’s nice,” Avery said.  “I think you become more than the sum of the two of you.”

“I feel like I’d become less me.”

“That’s a whole other tangent,” Lucy said.  Then she adjusted her hand position and put the book down.  “But to stop getting distracted and get down to business…”

“Right.”

Pages open, she could see the work Verona had done.  Verona removed different pages from elsewhere in the notebook, laying them out in a wider configuration.  Individually, they looked like singular pieces of city magic, but together…

It took Lucy a second to grasp what the diagram even was.

“We’ve done this before,” Lucy said.

“Yep.”

“This is way bigger,” Avery said.  “And expensive.  We have clout, but not this much.”

“We have clout, not this much, but that’s why…”  Verona got her phone and flipped through.  “Let me find this, wish we had a connection…”

Lucy looked over the entire thing.

All of it connected.  It was a city magic diagram, but it filled in everything.  Comprehensive, detailed, and it took two and a half pages just for the broad form notes.  There were more, minor notes, too.  Verona laid her phone down, open to a section in a file she’d had on her phone.  Points of Law.

“That’s dirty, making her pay for her own demise,” Lucy said, as she read it.  “If it works.”

“Do we know it works?” Avery asked.

“I give it a six out of ten, but I’ve got some backup ideas.  Like taking all the markets and allies you’ve gathered, Ave, and asking them for support on this.”

“Who can we ask that would help us make this work?  Sebastian Harless?  Contract guy from Thunder Bay, that helped me with market contracts?  Taught Lucy a bit?”

“Does he do Law, in this sense?” Lucy asked.

“Some, I think.”

“But if we ask him, the Carmine might hear us ask,” Lucy said, chin in her hand, looking down at the diagram.  There were more detailed notes on follow-up pages.  “This is bigger than the Founding.”

“How many times do you think I need to step it up to a ridiculous degree before they start calling me a sorceress?” Verona asked.

“I think we could contact someone who we can ask to contact Sebastian,” Avery said.  “Check this works, maybe get suggestions on texts.”

“So what is that, two days, three?” Lucy asked.  “To research, plan, prepare?  Then what?”

“One day to get in,” Verona said.  “Which gets tricky.”

“Actually,” Lucy said, chin still in hand.  She sipped her flavored water.  “Twenty four hours to travel to one of the Judges.  We can start outside, head towards the territory, finish with the deadline just after we step inside, put ourselves squarely in her jurisdiction.”

“Hey, research pays off,” Verona said.  “You sure?”

“Looked it up.  Actually navigating while you’re inside the space gets intense, because you have to look out for the Carmine Lords, but we’re sidestepping that too.  That’s what I was thinking about, actually, when I said before, we should keep the neighboring regions in our back pocket.”

Avery nodded.  “Ties into your plan, then?  If you’re thinking about it?”

“Fucking with Charles,” Lucy said.  She sat up straighter.  “I say… Carmine contest.”

“Okay,” Verona said.  “Not you, I hope?”

“No.  You’ve been working on summoning practices?”

“Yeah, some,” Verona said.

“We make a candidate.”

“Wrinkle, then,” Verona said.

“Of course,” Lucy said.

“I don’t want to run into what we ran into with Julette.  If they have a brain or potential for a brain, and we’re expecting to put them into a role where they’re serving for life?”

“I kind of wasn’t expecting them to win,” Lucy said.  “Which lowers the bar, because I figure the contest requires some ability to show you can judge and do the job, and we don’t want that.  So we can keep them brainless… except for what is needed…”

“Still sketch,” Avery said.

“Yeah.  But no more than a fetch that hasn’t been given the chance to mature.”

“What’s the idea with it?” Verona asked.

“Charles has to respond and mind it.  And we can program it to set terms, and according to what I could find, digging through texts, the laws of Solomon require that anyone who wishes to challenge a Judge or Lord be able to be heard and be able to make their challenge.”

“So we force him to stop whatever he’s doing, including possibly gainsaying us, and to go handle that?” Avery asked.

“You said it was like a curse,” Verona said.  “Not a distraction.”

“Because we can send an agent in, and we can have them ask for a challenge to take place over several days,” Lucy said.  “Three days to allow all potential contenders to arrive.  The Carmine Exile has to sit in, moderate, and watch, while not interfering or interrupting the process.”

“We bench him for three days?” Avery asked.

Lucy nodded.  “And we signal the position’s unstable, and when that’s all over and done with?  We have another one ready to do the exact same thing.”

Verona whistled.  “We DDOS him.  We give him enough messages he has to respond to he can’t do anything else?”

“That’s going to annoy people, isn’t it?” Avery asked.  “Verona talked about hating the ping when Matthew had his Demesne claim.  We’re provoking the Others who could be Carmine?  Angry or violent or warlike or bloody?”

“By proxy,” Lucy said.

“Does that help?” Verona asked.

“Some, I guess?  With the less involved Others?  But that’s a wrinkle, yeah.  And it being by proxy is a wrinkle.”

“You own it,” Avery said.  “Charles could say, hey, you over there, you made this, you’re responsible for this challenge, and yank us to him?”

“Extradite,” Verona said.

Lucy nodded.  “Which means that for this to really work, we’d want to launch it from a place that would assert jurisdiction over us.”

“Refusing extradition,” Verona said.

“Sure,” Lucy said.

They looked over their options.

“Hey,” Snowdrop said.  “I’m really a mastermind when it comes to this, and I’ve got a point I know is pretty smart here.”

“What’s up, Snow?” Avery asked.

Snowdrop had her butt out of her seat so she could lean more over the table, craning her head, to look at the notes. “You’re going to kill Charles, if this stuff works.”

That was a valid point.

Lucy clicked her tongue.

“Avery’s got our survival in mind,” Verona said.  “I’ve got a plan to remove his power, maybe even metaphorically neuter him.  And Lucy, you’re prepared to challenge him and tie his hands, right?”

“Hopefully,” Lucy replied.

“But none of that beats him.  Did we all kind of hope the others had a way to win in mind?”

Lucy took a drink of sunset flavored water, thinking.

“There’s a chance we find the right people to help us.  A good Carmine candidate, to take advantage.  When Charles is bored and annoyed and distracted and maybe if Maricica isn’t covering him or helping with that situation, we get the right person in?” Avery suggested.

“Or we find a chink in the defenses,” Lucy said.  “You kind of did, with that one lady and her apprentice, Nomi.”

“Yeah,” Avery said.

“Or we figure something out.  A practice, a loophole,” Verona said.

“So that’s it then,” Lucy said.  “Paper?”

Verona got a sheet out of her notebook, sliding it over.

Lucy drew an arcing line across the top half of the sheet.  “Deadlines: we run out of places to stay, people lose patience with us, or there are obligations we’re meant to meet that we can’t and we get forsworn.  Like, just to start from the beginning, we’re protectors of Kennet.”

“Have to stop in and have to keep supporting Kennet, but they said we could step away for years, so long as we’re doing something,” Avery said.  “If we support the market from afar, that could count.”

“But we could get attacked there,” Lucy said.  “If they replace us or start challenging us openly?  We can’t exactly step in to say hey, no, you’re wrong.  Because we have to stay away, right?”

Avery frowned.

“Guilherme,” Lucy said.  “That’s, um, tricky?  Like, even if we get him to us and we can keep watching him to make sure he’s being good, I don’t see that being a great dynamic.  Hey Liberty, we’re going to crash, oh, don’t mind our giant, very strict, very proud Fae swordfighting mentor who’s hanging out.”

“Yeah,” Verona agreed.

Lucy made notes on all the big concerns.  She kept her pen near the page.  “Years, huh?”

“What’s that?” Verona asked.

“Avery said we could stay away for years.”

“One of the first things I asked, going into the awakening.  Because it was in the back of my head that my mom might possibly go to Thunder Bay, even last spring.”

“But can we?  Do we?  It’s worth thinking about.  Don’t have to answer now, I think my answer will be slightly different from you two.  But what’s our tolerance level?  How long do we stay away from family, friends, Others, boyfriends, girlfriends, our own damn rooms, clothes, music, Demesnes.  How long can we put up this fight, personally speaking, even if we figure out all the other oaths and deals we need to keep, before that’s it?”

“I mean… this is serious,” Avery said.

“I know,” Lucy replied.  “I do, I really do.  I think I might be more willing to fight this to a bitter end than you two.  But Verona was talking about contracts and expectations- I wasn’t listening-”

“Oh hey,” Verona said.

“Sorry, my head was somewhere else-”

“And it’s not even closer to wake-up time than go-to-bed time for you guys,” Snowdrop said.

“That too.  We’ve talked about that before, Verona, I wasn’t ignoring you.”

Verona nodded.

“But like, expectations.  What are ours?  What happens if we’re losing?  What do we say is our breaking point?”

“Heavy question,” Avery said.  “What does breaking look like?”

“He’s offered to let us surrender,” Verona replied.  “If we agree not to go after him and his people, to let things lie?  We live in a world where the Carmine Exile controls the region.  And other stuff.  St. Victor’s keeps doing what it’s doing, and he pushes his agenda until he gets removed.  Maricica might have plots, and we’ll have to sit back and say hey, we tried, but we couldn’t.”

“What gets us there?” Lucy asked.

“You guys bail,” Verona said.  She shrugged.  “I dunno if I have it in me to go if either of you aren’t there.  Or if you’re dead.  Either of you.”

“Dark,” Avery said.

“That’s me.”  Verona’s voice was quiet.  “And that’s not impossible, you know?  We do okay, but what happens if a cut there…”

She touched the bandage near Lucy’s elbow.

“Is there instead?  Artery.”  Verona’s finger touched another spot on her upper arm.  “Suddenly Lucy’s bleeding out and tonight gets more complicated.  Or if it’s here?”

She stretched her arm out, finger arched backwards, touching the space over Lucy’s heart.

Lucy nodded.

“You too, ditz,” Verona told Avery.  “I know that doesn’t make me a great person, compared to someone who’ll fight.  Maybe I’ll surprise myself, like I did with the Musser test.  Finding out I’ve got more willingness to do good in me than I thought, if everything else is stripped away.  But I can’t see myself being on my A game.”

“I can see there being a time limit,” Avery said.  “If people we love are being affected, or if we’re here and we’re not getting stronger or finding better answers, and the world’s changing and moving on without us?  I’d hate that.”

“I guess…” Lucy trailed off.  She sighed.  “Question that goes with that question, is how much do we want to do this?  Because if this was how it ended, if we had to back off, if we had to let Charles win?  I’d feel like this was a world without justice.  But that’s just me.”

“They killed Edith.  At least, as much as you can while keeping the power and Otherness intact.  But they killed her,” Avery said.  “They’ll do that to others.  They messed themselves up somehow, those kids were freaky.  They do it to themselves, even?  They’ll break oaths?  What happens, what do things even end up looking like?  I don’t think I want to find out.  I don’t want to bring my parents or brothers or sisters or a future partner into this world and have to say, you know, also, this is kinda super crapsack and evil.”

“I mainly want to see if my idea works.  And if it doesn’t, I can try another,” Verona said.

There’s more to it than that, Ronnie.

Avery suppressed a yawn, but when Snowdrop did yawn, Avery broke and yawned for real.

“Okay,” Lucy said.  “Want to get going?  Get in touch with family and Kennet, see about finding a place to sleep tonight?”

“Where to?” Avery asked.  “We should draw up a list, cross out people we’ve used.  I would’ve, but I didn’t want to tip off any omniscient Judge looking over my shoulder.”

“What’s your instinct?” Lucy asked.

“Garricks?  Can share notes, and I trust them to communicate with our people.  Plus I think we can get supplied.”

“Sounds good.”

Some other customers had come in, ordering.  Lucy caught the follow-up conversation between the anthropomorphic cat and his wife with the cats crawling and hanging all over her.

“You cannot keep telling every single customer its on the house!  We cannot afford this, we’re putting in the extra work!”

“Tip?” Lucy suggested to Avery.

Avery nodded and left behind some of the coins with images painted on them.  A chariot, a dog on a ball, and a forest path.

“How much are those worth?” Verona asked.

“It’s magic.  It’s enough for a good bribe, without being specific.  Lost like ’em.”

“Okay.”

They waved their goodbye as they left, the couple still quietly arguing while they prepared meals.

“Are we okay killing something like the Alabaster?” Avery asked.

“We could give her a chance to turn around and stop helping Charles,” Verona said.  “But honestly?  She’s had a good run, and other people are dying.  Am I okay with it?  Dunno.  But…”

Lucy nodded slowly.

“Or Charles?” Avery asked.

A distant bell began to ring.

Off in the distance, the ocean began to peak downward.  Flooding toward a central point on the horizon.  Like sand through an hourglass, but without the glass.

“Oop.  There it is,” Avery said.  She had her bracelet off already, and started jogging ahead, looking for a door.

“We’re more willing with Charles, right?” Verona asked.

“We know him!” Avery shouted, because she was far enough away that she couldn’t communicate by talking normally.  “We’ve talked to him!  There’s that personal connection!”

“You more than any of us, I think,” Lucy pointed out.

Verona sighed.

“Here!” Avery called out.

They hurried over.  Avery was holding a door open, leading into a dark, narrow alleyway with gutters on either side.  Music throbbed.

The ocean continued to crash down.  Driftwood was picked up, and water swirled, cresting, waves slamming into one another to send spray skyward, to the rapidly depleting sky of ocean.

Verona and Lucy stepped through.  Lucy took Avery’s earlier advice and stayed put, listening to the pounding music.

“What are you doing?” she asked.  Avery was staying inside.

“Investigating.  Bear with me.”

The waves were rushing toward them.  Locals were finishing their candies or acting like nothing was happening.

The water hit them, splashing past, stripping flesh and clothes from bones.  Fish decorations swelled and became actual fish, picking up what had been cast off.  Lucy caught a glimpse of a large eel with a human femur through its nose, and a school of fish that had once been a woman, batting a fragment of skull between them as they swam.

Avery shut the door just before the water could reach it.

“Bit of research,” Avery said.  She turned and faced the alleyway.  “Being dead serious here… don’t mess with me on this.  Or I could be Lost.”

“Right,” Lucy said.

Avery exhaled, steeling herself, then tapped a battered and empty can a short distance down the alley.

On either side of the alley, a crowd of Lost peering through the window cheered like sports fans at a winning goal, loud enough it made the air vibrate.  The music broke up into fanfare.

Avery tapped the can a short distance further.

The cheering intensified.

“What-” Verona started.

Lucy clapped a hand over Verona’s mouth hard enough it might’ve hurt a bit.

The can was an irregular thing, and liked to bounce and roll.  Avery was giving it her full attention.  Snowdrop stayed at her side, crouched, like she was ready to dash forward at a moment’s notice.

Lucy moved up too.  Avery nodded.

She’d read Avery’s notes.  She remained ready to keep the can from bouncing or rolling the wrong way.

It took maybe five minutes, for something that could have been done in two, with just a bit more courage.  The cheering followed them all the way.

Avery tapped the can with her toe, batting it against a wall at the end of the alley.  The cheering blew up, louder than ever, and the wall tipped, falling away, lost in the gloom.  The walls to the side fell away too, and they were left in another alley.

“We smell a bit like dead fish,” Verona remarked.  “I kinda like it.”

“Don’t use your phones just yet,” Avery said.  “I need to change out the card in mine.  If we’re seen as traveling to weird places, we could get locked out, and that would suck.”

“Right.”

The Garricks’ building was an office building in a nice neighborhood.  There was a very green looking suburb and then the commercial real estate lined up on the one end of it, backed by a mountain.  Some of the businesses looked like they had tennis courts.

And then there was this one building, kind of at the border of both, with a convenience store, a lobby that could’ve been a hotel or business lobby, apparently some offices taking up a portion of the ground floor, judging by the computer chairs and monitors she saw through the window, and apartments above, judging by the toys on a balcony.

One person was at the… reception desk?  Reading.  The light around the desk and the faint lights poised above the elevators and along the stairwell at the back were some of the only lights around.  Lucy was tired enough she couldn’t place the teenage girl’s name.

They walked up, Avery knocked on the glass, and the girl buzzed them in.

“Hello.  There’s a face I didn’t expect to see at two forty-five in the morning.”

“Adorea, hi,” Avery said.  “Shit kind of went down.”

“No kidding?  Seems to be a pattern.”

“We’re miscreants,” Snowdrop said.

Adorea clicked her tongue.  “It might be because it’s a late hour, but my brain’s moving a little slowly.”

“What are you doing here?”

“They pay fourteen bucks an hour to pull an all nighter and watch the ground floor.  Kind of security, kind of manning the phones for Path stuff.  You can split it with people if you want.”

“Raw deal, I couldn’t do that,” Snowdrop said.

Adorea smiled.  “Anyway, I don’t think anyone really drilled me on what I’m supposed to do if there’s trouble or whatever.  I think I’ll wake someone up?  You want Cliff or Peter?”

“Both?” Avery asked.

“Here, let me…” Adorea flicked a set of switches at the desk.

All of the lights came on.  Lucy saw stars at the sudden brightness.

“Aaaaaaaa,” Snowdrop made a strangled, quiet sort of scream.

“Sorry, didn’t think.  I’ve got a bit of magic from a Path that helps with that.  You guys want to go into the business area?  Pick a conference room?  I’ll head up, knock on doors, send the guys down?”

“Thanks,” Avery said.  “Sorry about this.”

“Keeping me awake.”

They went to the doors at the back, then circled around to the office space, which didn’t actually have that many computers or offices.

There was a conference room with a projector, a whiteboard with practice names on it, and lots of comfy looking chairs.

“So this is our life now?” Verona asked, sitting in one, pulling off her boots and pulling her feet up onto the seat.  She span herself around.  “Dropping in on people?”

“I dunno,” Avery said.  “Depending on how things go, this could be a few days.  Could be months.  I think we should try to call ahead, though.  It won’t always be this awkward.”

Lucy nodded.  She leaned back into the very puffy, soft office chair, and immediately felt like she could doze off.

“Phone,” Avery said.  She popped off the back.  “SIM card…  Is it okay if I call my mom first?”

Lucy nodded.  “Me next?”

“I wonder what my dad thinks,” Verona said.  “Normally I’d count on Julette for the cover.”

“You think you’ll be in trouble?” Lucy asked, while Avery picked her parents from the list on her phone.  “Is your dad going to be a pain?”

“I think my dad’s actually weirdly good when I’m hurt or in trouble,” Verona said, rubbing at her palm.  “Does the right things, says mostly right things, gets me comfort stuff.  I don’t think he’d be empathetic about Julette, though.”

“We can ask if Julette turned up okay when Avery gets through.”

Avery sat back, phone at her ear.

“Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

A sound like an exhalation, hoarse, without an inhalation to break it up.  Ongoing.

Avery frowned.  She looked at Lucy, lips parted, no words.

“Trouble?” Lucy asked.

The lights flickered.

The building jolted, as if a car had driven into the wall.  They sprung up out of their seats.

Above them was a drop ceiling, and the tiles rattled as something moved through the ceiling above them.  There was a rattle in the wall, and the draping screen for the projector knocked against the wall.

“No, no, no,” Avery whispered.

“Do we know what it is?” Lucy asked, using her Sight.

She could see it moving like a stain through the walls.

“Dropped Call?” Verona asked.

“I don’t think it works like this,” Avery said.

“White Rot?” Verona asked.

“No.  That’s… it harasses.  They trapped the phones?  We can’t call home, it triggers something technomantic?”

They followed the thing out into the hallway.  It took its time getting from wall to ceiling to the next wall, but it had a slight head start.

They reached the third of the meeting rooms, and there was an old man, shirtless, pot-bellied, and ill-kempt, with long straggly hair, thin at the top, and a long-straggly beard.  He stood on the conference table, surrounded by visual flickers and glitches, like a corrupted file.

He reached up to the ceiling-mounted projector there, and lifted feet off the table, pulling down on it with all his weight, until it broke free of the large metal staple-like bits of metal that fixed it to the surface.

He flickered violently as he landed back on the table, the projector falling through him and clipping a chair on its way to the ground.

He flickered, and was standing over the projector as it, not plugged in, kicked to life.

Projecting images of dead animals onto the bend of the hallway and part of the office that was adjacent to the meeting room.

“Gremlin-like,” Lucy said, as she moved around so she might be able to cut him off.

The flickering, rapidly changing images of dead animals began to collide with one another.  Headless birds and household pets with guts dragged out were projected, replaced with another image, and instead of disappearing, were thrust up, out, and into reality, rolling off of other images to plop on the carpet, surrounded by visual glitches that slowly decreased in number.

Lucy put on her weapon ring and lunged, moving to cut him off.  But he turned and walked into a wall with another car-into-building thud as he disappeared from view.

And then he was moving through that space with speed, and a rattling that made lights flicker more, as he jostled wires and internal things.  Up into the ceiling.

Down the hallway.

Lucy’s attempt to give chase was blocked as the projector spat out a bull, headless and limbless, thrashing as it bled out and died.  She leaped over it as it appeared, but a stump of a limb hit her calf and smacked right into where she’d been cut.  She stumbled as she fell and lost sight of the old man.

He was going to the spot near the front of the building, with desks, computers, and office chairs.

Avery beat Lucy there, partially because she hadn’t stumbled.  Verona’s focus was on the projector.  When she couldn’t turn it off, she started smashing and kicking it.

Which only made the projected corpses and things squeeze out more.

“This is not how I wanted to start out this phase of things,” Avery said, as she walked down the aisle of cubicles, looking.

Lucy moved down a parallel aisle.

Through the glass wall, she could see people getting out of the elevator.

“Other!” Lucy called out.

She heard something bang.  She looked at Avery, who nodded.

They broke apart, approaching from two angles.

He was there, in a cubicle that was filled with that visual noise.  He’d pulled a monitor and computer away from the wall, and they lay in a heap with an unplugged keyboard.

Lucy, reaching into her bag, got salt.

He didn’t even seem to care they were approaching.  With fingers, he pulled keys away from the keyboard.  Then he dragged fingers across the base of the keyboard rapid-fire, shredding his fingertips on plastic key housings and technical components, and shedding blood onto the surface.

The blood sparked violently.

“Hhhhhhhhh,” he breathed.

Lucy threw the salt.  He didn’t react, and didn’t look at her.  There was no effect, except the visual glitches around him and across his skin intensified.

“Salt doesn’t work, don’t think,” Lucy said.

Avery, standing on a nearby desk, threw a spell card.  Fire.  It went through the man, igniting him only when it was in contact with his body, then hit the pile of electronics, igniting that.

He didn’t seem to care, and picked up the monitor, holding it overhead.

Lucy thrust, sticking her spear out.

It went through him.  More visual glitches.

She swiped it through him a few times in rapid succession, to see if she could add up damage that way, glitching him out of existence.

The monitor he held with screen down distorted, screen illuminating, then bulging, before dripping down like a big blob of technicolor slime.

She could see a dog’s head against a background in the garish paint colors of the Easels application that had always been on her computers.

“Heads up,” Avery said.

All the computers in all the cubicles were now showing that image on their screens.

“What the hell is going on!?” Peter Garrick bellowed.  “Adorea said you were in a pinch, but she didn’t imply this!”

“It happened all of a sudden!” Avery raised her voice.

“Wonderkand?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Look at the screens, look at the screens, nice dog nice dog nice dog nice dog,” Snowdrop chattered, backing up.

“Fucking urban legend bullshit,” Peter said.  “I didn’t bring my kit because I thought this would be a diplomatic meeting.”

“Nice dog nice dog- Aaa!” Snowdrop shrieked as a dog leaped out of a cubicle, biting into her arm.

Avery kicked the dog firmly into the nearest non-cubicle wall.  It was an air-shoe powered impact that should have killed the animal, but it recovered pretty quickly, finding its feet again, head low, looking like it was snarling but making no noise.

“What do we do?” Verona asked.  She was right behind him.

“It’s the dog thing?” he asked.  “If it’s the dog why is there a pile of animal carcasses staining my carpet behind me?”

“It’s three things so far,” Lucy told him.  “Old man goes into walls and I think he makes the other things.”

Every time she looked at one of the screens with the dog, the image of the dog got closer.  Lucy understood the gimmick.  “Careful about watching the dog screens!”

Except even averting her eyes didn’t work.  If a screen was in her field of vision -and there were screens all around them- then even peripheral vision seemed to give it some ground.  Her focus would go somewhere, and it would edge closer in that middle ground when she wasn’t keeping exact track.

“The dog I’ve heard about,” Peter said.  “Urban legend.  Lots of weird spots all around Korea where people would find savaged bodies sitting in computer chairs.”

“So the old man summons urban legends?”

“Yeah.  Might be he summons lots of different things.”

Lucy could see the stain spreading.  It traced wires behind walls and then bled out, dark purple-black.

She glimpsed the dog in the corner of her eye, nose almost pressed against the screen, and closed her eyes, listening.

“I’m so sorry,” Avery said.

“Shit happens, but holy crap, you can’t give us an easy one once in a while, kid?” Cliff asked.

“Dog’s getting close to me,” Verona said.

“Eyes closed,” Lucy told her.

“Yeah, shit.”

Listening.  Feeling the air.

“Shit!  Dog!” Cliff shouted.

The dogs didn’t make noise, like breathing, snarling, barking, or running.  But they buzzed faintly, like fluorescent lights.

She listened for the buzz, heard Cliff’s heavy footstep, and lunged.

Piercing it.  She kept eyes down, narrowed, and saw the dog with her spear through its neck.  It was lighter than it looked.

Looking meant glimpsing another screen.  The dog was almost coming out of it.  One more glimpse…

“Lucy!  Your seven!”

She turned spear to pen, letting the dog corpse fall, and with eyes closed, she twirled the pen to flip it around, and turned it into a spear again, stabbing between her arm and body, stabbing for the buzz.

Partial hit.  She had to listen for the buzz to move sideways, then swiped out, spear point slashing the dog’s throat.

More computer stuff smashed to the ground.

The old man still at work.

“Oh my god,” Adorea said, as she came around the corner.  “What the hell?”

“Adorea!” Peter shouted.  “Is anything up in the lobby?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck!  It’s spreading!”

“And on the first floor, I went to wake Jude up.”

“Shit!”

Lucy remained on dog guard duty, spear ready.  The one she’d cut the throat of was still active, and the one she’d speared through the neck was buzzing and moving around again, slowly.  Injured.

She exhaled slowly, focusing.  Trying to move with the scene, with the flow of bodies she was sensing.

The fire alarm went off.

“Direct them away from this end of the building!  Get them straight outside!”

Lucy moved down the hall until she was mostly sure she was away from the computers, letting others pass her.  She stabbed a dog and whipped its body into another dog with a flick of her spear.  She moved back a bit further, then opened her eyes.

The lights were a different tint, a more jaundiced yellow.  Different deal than the Turtle Queen.  Kind of.

And the reflections in the windows.  He was working his mojo on that too.  The view past the windows wasn’t what it had been before.  It looked like an old film reel had recorded a view of a city past a heavy film of television static and then been through a fire.  Black ulcerous blotches moved across that scene.

“It’s phasing us into some other realm.”

“Nex Machina,” Cliff said.  “Maybe even a Deus Nex Machina.  Let’s get ourselves out of the building.  Adorea!  make sure nobody’s checking their phones!  Shout it, pass it down the line!”

A girl staggered forward, past the old man, who was breaking another computer.  Hands wrapped in electrical wire were suspended around her, covering eyes, constricting her throat, holding her wrists, ankles, covering breasts and nether regions.  The ends of the frayed wires spooled out past where the arms ended, floating and drifting in the air around her.  When they touched a surface they left huge electrical burns in paint and carpet.  She had more of the glitches around herself.  Injured dobermans paced alongside her, glitches dancing around them, repairing the damage they covered.

“Hey,” the girl said, in a strangled voice that sounded like it had passed from bad microphone to bad speakers.  “Eyes, hair, throat, wrist, ankle, tits, pussy.  Choose.”

“Know that one too,” Cliff said.  “Get out of the building.”

“Choose!” the girl raised her strangled voice.

“What the fuck is going on?” one of the adults asked, as they passed from the office area to the lobby.

“Nex Machina dropped in on our guests, it’s calling on popular technomancy urban legends to support itself while it spreads influence.

“Choo-“

“Tits!” Verona shouted, interrupting.

The girl stopped in her tracks, giggling.  The hands at her chest fell away.

“What the fuck, Ronnie?” Lucy asked.

“With a petitioner like that, if they’re demanding an answer, escalating, it can be better to answer.”

“Yeah,” Cliff said.  “You’re right.  I was hoping to get out of the building first.  Adorea!  Other stairs!  Ward this one!”

Adorea, in the stairwell with the evacuees, nodded, and stopped the people who were evacuating down into the lobby, redirecting them.

“I haven’t read up on this one,” Verona said.  “Did I pick an okay answer?”

The giggling was intensifying.

They spilled out with explosive violence, breaking the glass that separated hallway from conference room, they knocked over visible furniture, and came falling through drop ceilings.  Men, mostly overweight, hairy, greasy to an extreme, some tattooed, some with glasses, some with bad acne.  Just… complete stereotypes of the unwashed internet neckbeard, spilling forth, sliding over one another and scrabbling to get to her.  A section of wall partially caved in as the massed bodies squeezed past one another.

“Not actually one of the worse ones,” Cliff said.

The groped technomancy Other resumed her forward march.  The fact so many of the manifestations were grabbing onto her didn’t slow her down in the slightest.  The ones that held on were dragged along behind her.  Her voice was raised. “Eyes, hair, throat, wrist, ankle, pussy, choose.”

They evacuated through the front doors.

“Choose!” she shouted.

There were Garricks already setting up caution tape with writing on the one side.

The crowd gathered outside, many wearing boots, pyjamas, and coats, flipping up hoods because they hadn’t had time to grab hats.

Inside, lights flickered.  There was a whole mob and a bunch of pacing dogs inside the office area.  The woman was in the lobby now, along with about sixty unclothed men fighting to squirm past one another to get to her.

A dog paced in front of the glass double doors, holding a squirming, dying piglet in its jaws.  The piglet’s back half had been cut off.  Its front legs moved weakly.

“Glad we moved most of the innocents out,” Cliff said.  His wife went to his side.  “Jude out?”

“With his cousins still.  Helping the last evacuees inside.”

“I’m so sorry,” Avery said, crouching by Snowdrop.  Snowdrop had a bad bite wound on her forearm.

Lucy bent down to help, holding things while Avery got the first aid stuff.  They’d had some of their own out, they’d used up some of the Lost’s before giving it back, and it was still at the top of the bag.  Which said a lot.  They cleaned the wound.  It looked like the teeth had burned or singed, electrical, which limited the bleeding already.

“So who’s the major technomancer you ticked off, huh?” Peter asked.

“I don’t know.  There’s one who we were up against, but they- they’re not major.”

“Maybe they won the lottery and decided to buy something nice for themselves,” Cliff said, watching the scene inside.  The Others weren’t leaving the building.

“Or they weren’t major and they got power,” Lucy said.  “And they’ve been keeping stuff in their back pockets.”

“I’m thinking we cut the power, let it die on its own,” Peter said, arms folded.  He wasn’t wearing a coat, but didn’t seem to mind the cold too much.  This area’s winter was a lot less bad than Kennet’s.

“I can try to pay you back,” Avery said.

“We have insurance,” Cliff said.

“Okay, I- I, hmm.  I do want to make this up to you.”

“I think we’re getting to the point where we’re working closely enough together we don’t need to sweat that sort of thing.  But if you wanted to cover the increased insurance premiums after we get past this, couple years, might smooth over feathers that got ruffled when our nice optimistic Christmas just got-”

All the power was cut.  The building interior was plunged into darkness.

Bodies slammed against the glass, not like it was intentional, but like they’d stumbled that way.

“-interesting,” Cliff said.

“You came for something,” Peter said, arms still folded, watching the dark lobby.  Electricity periodically sparked up.  “What do you need.”

“I was going to ask for a place to stay, stuff went down, we’re up against the Carmine, but-”

Peter pulled a hand away from his body, gesturing at the building.

“Yeah,” Avery said, agreeing with the unspoken.  She and Lucy were bandaging Snowdrop’s arm.  Verona was looking in the windows and doors.

“We can clean this up by morning.  Or least, get the Others dealt with, I think,” Cliff said.  “There are other Garrick households in the area.  But, gotta say, as much as we get along?  It’s really up to Peter, but-”

“Yeah,” Avery said, again.  Snowdrop shook her head.

“It’s bad karma already, bringing trouble behind us,” Lucy said.  “Imposing on top of that would be not so great.  I’m sorry too, by the way.”

“Nah,” Cliff grunted out the word.  He didn’t look happy, but he at least didn’t look pissed at them.  He looked a bit in awe of just how fucked up it had gotten so fast, if anything.  He tilted his head in their direction.  “Anything else we can do?”

“I’ve got notes and stuff on the doors I’ve researched, general Path notes,” Avery said.  “An updated list of valid and usable doors would be great.  We might be using them a fair bit.”

“Adorea and Clayton are the ones to talk to.  Look like Clayton’s busy with kids, Adorea’s evacuating people with Jude.  But sure.”

Lesson learned.  Can’t call directly home, Lucy thought.  Cost of that lesson: one of a limited number of temporary, safe places to stay.  The deadline shrinks.

Next Chapter