《The Blade Brigade - Masques and Masks》


 Eon 11301, Cycle of Koths Song, Season of Fire – The Prologue.

    I have always hated masques, the giggling heiresses, the stiff heirs, the silently scurrying servants, the maliciously gossiping maids, the noisy bands, the stupid dancing and don''t even get me started on the canap¨¦s! But as the heir of noble house Dutair I could never be seen to snub our traditional allies in house Fairbanks by forgoing the attendance of their first ball of the season. Even the head of the most ancient and honourable House Dutair (my very own father) was attending which meant that I couldn¡¯t wriggle out of it even if I tried. Not that I did, for once in my life I wouldn¡¯t just be slapping a blank smile on my face whilst pretending to listen to small people make smaller talk, I had a reason to be there. This fact did not comfort me.


    My family¡¯s steam-carriage rattled along through the damp foggy night, I knew the oppressive mist would be left far behind when we began to climb up the vast spiralling road towards Baron Fairbank¡¯s famous manor but I was still fidgeting in my heavy dress all the same. Part of it was nerves I admit, what I intended to do tonight was quite likely to result in my execution if I was caught after all. However in my defence I will point out that a good part of it was that although my dress was of the finest silk and latest style (sea green with silver chasings) it was still rather hot and heavy. On top of that steam-carriages are notorious for not being particularly cool nor comfortable contraptions at the best of times and a damp night in the middle of the season of fire was most assuredly not one of those times. I imagine I was quite red in the face when we finally left the sweltering fog behind.


    Sat there with the rest of my family (the highest family of my house being as we were the closest relatives of the house head) it was not hard to see a few signs of similar discomfort if one knew where to look. To my left was seated my insufferable sister Allegra dressed like a tropical Pijet[1] and fanning herself slightly faster than was decent with her silken fan. I remember examining her closely for any signs of anxiety and feeling slightly jealous that she looked so obviously at home curled up in her seat completely at ease like a gryshk[2] on hearth rug, her long silver-white hair gleamed in the moonlight and her acid green eyes shimmered with excitement. Despite her gossipy nature and irritating personal habits I have always thought she looks the very picture of a proper young noble woman. Some have claimed I only think this because we¡¯re identical twins but I¡¯ve always believed it is simply my responsible nature as an elder sister shining through and I defy anyone to prove otherwise.


    To my right was my irritating younger brother Roland nearly lost within the folds of a two sizes too large suit that had once belonged to my elder brother, I felt a pang of sadness as I looked at him which I quickly hid. He was smiling so widely I briefly worried he would dislocate his jaw as his ever wandering eyes took in the shining well oiled mechanisms of our carriage¡¯s interior. Whenever our parents turned away he even went as far as to stick his head out of the window to stare rapturously at the smoking steam engine and its smoothly sliding pistons protruding from the iron horse that drew us. I shook my head slightly as he once again strained his neck to catch a second¡¯s glimpse of the pressure regulator letting out a great hacking cough of ash filled smog Boys I remember thinking.


    Looking away from the antics of my sibling I fixed my eyes on the figures sat opposite us who somehow managed to exude an air of palatial grace whilst sitting entirely still. My father or more correctly his Excellency the High-Lord Octavius Clemente Ivan Goretti Dutair the current head of house of the ancient and venerable house Dutair, next to him sat my mother lady Aurelia Alfonsina Alina Buffone Dutair who was several decades ago lady Leyon of the... you guessed it... ancient and venerable house Leyon.


    Both were dressed simply and expensively in black and silver[3] and both were apparently entirely unaffected by the boiling night air, clinging humid mist and the rough ride of the damnable invention which was juddering us through the dark streets of Prasus.


    Roland leant forwards in his seat again; the only thing keeping his head inside the window was the icy gaze of High-Lord Dutair as he trembled with barely contained excitement and curiosity. I remember I started counting to myself under my breath and only managed to get to 4 before the dam broke.


    ¡°Do you think he¡¯ll have Brass-Angels? I hear they got them working again and even carded them better after the... accident at noble house Molit, they might work properly soon can you imagine? Real servant automatons! Do you think he¡¯ll have some jellesion[4]? Oh oh and maybe he¡¯ll have an airship! I heard from Gus that....¡±


    ¡°Oh honestly father!¡± exclaimed Allegra in a tired voice. ¡°Didn''t you forbid him from talking with that little gutter runner anymore?¡±


    ¡°Gus isn¡¯t a gutter runner,¡± bursts out Roland angrily. ¡°He just lives in a district on the northern dock spur that''s all and he was right about us getting a Steam-Carriage!¡±


    ¡°Only because he works in the kitchens and saw it being delivered,¡± snaps Allegra leaning around me to glare at our brother. ¡°It doesn''t take a Tickwright to figure that out does it?¡±


    Roland blushes but continues as irrepressible as ever. ¡°You¡¯re just jealous that the only people you get to talk to are stupid girls who only want to talk about stupider boy¡¯s sis.¡±


    Allegra nostrils flared and she leant in towards Roland who quickly mirrored the motion bringing their screwed up faces to within inches of one other. Both were obviously ready to get down to a proper old fashioned shouting match the second their anger overwhelmed their restraint. I for my part simply sighed and leant backwards out of their way whilst casting a pained glance across at mother who understood and nodded.


    ¡°You two calm down.... now,¡± she ordered in her imperious tone. ¡°We are nearly there and I will not have you shaming our house with your bickering.¡±


    My two siblings turned away from one another with bad grace and settled back into their seats, Allegra staring out of the window and Roland glaring at his lap. I smiled gratefully at mother feeling relieved that neither had seen fit to test her patience that night of all nights. Thinking that, I pulled my shawl back into position; it was required that all ladies dress respectably of course and besides now that we had left the steam laden fog from the city''s vast ticksteel[5] manufactures it was becoming noticeably chillier.


    Roland looks up at me with an expression of puzzlement and suspicion on his young face, ¡°you usually side with mother when we argue Delilah why are you being so quiet?¡±


    Because I was here to rob the Baron of course but I would never tell my younger brother that, instead I just made an offhand comment about needing to rest my voice to shout at him on the way back that earned a few rye smiles from the rest of my family and made him pout.


    It didn''t take us much longer to arrive, our carriage sweeping through the last few tendrils of fog and past a pair of large black gates made from iron filigree as thin as lace and up along the driveway of the Fairbanks manor and eventually coming to a stop at the foot of the ancient marble staircase with admirable precision. The Baron was rumoured to employ his own personal lay priest of the Church of the Divine Mechanisms[6] to tend to his estate and I could believe it, I¡¯d never seen a better configured golem beacon in my life by then; our door was aligned perfectly with the bottom step of the staircase and the golem hadn''t even had to back up. Even knowing just what kind of person he was I still felt rather impressed at the time.


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    As the carriage stilled our driver frantically flipped levers and smacked buttons on the footplate routing steam, venting pressure and cooling fireboxes after a moment the huge growling steam engine that hung from the back of our carriage like the thorax of some strange beetle spluttered, screamed and hissed as ice cold water was dumped onto it cooling the metal. Ahead of us the horse golem that the engine powered stilled in its steel reigns, the horse shaped body stamped its hoof quite convincingly before it became still, the life giving steam within it venting out of its ear mounted pressure release valves. At that signal of safety the various foot men festooning the outside of our coach like rather tasteless decorations leap from their handholds and flutter around the doors as an even greater wave of servants poor down from the manor bearing drinks, umbrellas and other sycophantic minutia.


    Father and mother saw this as nothing but there due of course they stepped from the coach with measured grace projecting power and influence with every motion and cut a swath through the babbling servants with a single glance. They proceeded along the freshly vacated cobbles at a slow pace expertly chosen to allow us to vacate the carriage behind them and catch up without doing anything as undignified as hurrying. Father had always said that ¡°running was for those who could not afford to buy time.¡± We were the highest family of the House Dutair, one of the richest noble houses in the great city of Prasus, we could probably have afforded a century or two. We could certainly afford to make the Baron wait for us.


    I still remember looking up at the mansion and being grudgingly amazed. For all his faults (and Baron Fairbanks had enough of them to capsize a dreadnaught) he certainly had a superb architect his palace was a ancient masterwork, a huge pseudo-gothic manor covered in marble pillars in much the same way that cheaper buildings had pigeons, tall stain glass windows dotted the sides each shot through with veins of imported jade and its roof was a wondrous work of black shingle that curved and ran back on itself in pantomime of the sea. All in all it was a nearly unique example of ancient Prasian architecture which had been ruined as far as I was concerned (and infinitely improved according to my little brother) by a whole slew of recent technological renovations. Its centuries old stonework had had innumerable holes punched into it through which wound a plethora of brass pipes pumping steam, gas and oil into the houses various mechanisms. As I stepped out of our carriage I saw two rows of eerie blue gas globes burning on the marble stairs before me sat upon its polished gilt edged bannisters and in the distance I could make out a slowly stomping gardening automata peacefully trimming a rose bed. The golem¡¯s finger shears trimming an errant bud or two in each bush which its vacuum neck devoured before it moved on again stomping peacefully across the grass lawn.


    I reached out a hand without even looking and grabbed my younger brothers collar which was the only way to stop him from running off and trying to make friends with the walking wheelbarrow, using the leverage I dragged him (with as much subtly as I could which in hindsight I don''t think was very much) after our parents and towards the figure standing atop the graceful marble steps surrounded by actinic blue gas globes and smiling with a barely disguised expression of predatory glee.


    This was Baron Augustine Fairbanks, controller of one of the largest cartels of food merchants in the great city of Prasus and the current head of noble house Fairbanks. He was well known amongst the nobility for his unparalleled understanding of countrywide financial markets, his adaptability to economic change and his utterly ruthless ambition and it was this last that had caught my attention and led to my visit here today. The serfs of his house were taxed very highly the Baron took over half of all that was earned in his houses various lands (mostly housing districts and docks but also large swathes of arable land on the islands surrounding the city which were sometimes jokingly called the grain collar) but that apparently wasn¡¯t enough, black hooded soldiers prowled the streets of his boroughs late at night stealing all they could and beating those who resisted. The rumours went that the Baron had a singular ambition, a seat on the senate; the advisors and yes-men of the Arch-Doge[7] himself there was no small amount of competition for seats however the only way onto the senate was at the Arch-Doges request which is why the Baron had secured an ace. A priceless clockwork egg from the workshop of Des¡¯Lunt herself it was a masterwork even by the highest standards of the finest Tickwrights of the Church of the Divine Mechanisms.


    Inlaid with a thousand polished gems and cast from solid gold it opened and sang a different tune on the hour every hour and supposedly would never repeat itself. It was an example of the finest ticksteel ever forged of the same quality as the Arch-Doge¡¯s personal golem bodyguards or the vast Brass Bastion of the Tribunal. It had cost millions of gold Lire[8] more than even a noble house could readily afford which was why Baron Fairbanks had sent his household guard out to steal from his own serfs and that gentle reader was why I was here to take it from him


    Is that everything? I believe so. Come then and let me show you how I stole it and where and more importantly to whom it led me.


    As I said I was standing on the marble staircase before the Fairbanks manor slightly behind my mother and father in the cold cloud free air one of my hands still firmly gripped my younger brothers collar and my sister stood to my side gazing at longingly at the manor no doubt already fantasising about dance and gossip. I for my part stared up at the man I was about to rob. I remember that just for a second he looked both cold and angry before he hid the expressions with well accustomed ease. I think I smirked ever so slightly; we had as house tradition demanded being fashionably late.


    ¡°Lord Dutair!¡± oozed the Baron unctuously taking my father¡¯s hand and shaking it vigorously. ¡°And Lady Dutair; you do me such a great honour by attending my humble little soiree.¡± His words dripped pretension like an assassin''s dagger dripped poison but my parents are true nobility and play the game well, the disgust I am sure they were feeling was invisible even to their own daughter standing by their side.


    ¡°Lord Fairbanks,¡± murmured father stiffly but graciously affecting an air of ancient creaking courtesy with the ease of a life-times practise, ¡°we are honoured by your invitation,¡± and then a flicker of fire was allowed to escape. ¡°And that you so graciously waited for us.¡±


    As I expected the Baron chose not to rise to this little conversational spar instead deflecting it with ease. ¡°Oh but for my House''s most ancient allies how could I do anything else?¡±


    ¡°We do hope the houses of Fairbanks and Dutair can continue their long and profitable alliance; our close cooperation can only serve to benefit both our houses.¡± Said my mother slowly and calmly the water to the fire. My parents knew one another¡¯s preferred political gambits of old; it was a true pleasure to watch them work.


    ¡°Oh of course lady Dutair of course, allies must always stay ready to aid one another especially in these most... trying of times¡± he paused and looked around with well judged pageantry.


    I remember reminding myself that I mustn¡¯t underestimate any noble no matter how cruel or foolish they seemed; all the stupid ones were long dead. ¡°Just last cycle[9] an Inquisitor passed by my manor and asked to check my serfs over, she implied one of them had been found in a routine check on the house Lanin and they were stepping up the searches... I was ever so grateful to see her of course and gave her the full hospitality of my house, it was the least I could do after all,¡± he turned away and raised a hand to his eyes dramatically. ¡°The idea that a blasphemous mage might have been hiding amongst my most loyal workers... it makes me feel quite faint.¡±


    My father nodded solemnly at the Baron storing that useful tip bit of information away, then as propriety demanded he half turned to gesture at me, ¡°You have never been introduced have you? This is my first born Delilah Dutair,¡± I smiled as best I could as my father lied, ¡°This is my second born daughter Allegra Dutair and,¡± he paused then sighed. ¡°...that over there is my son Roland Dutair attempting to befriend your gardening automaton.¡±


    Too late far too late I looked down at my hand realising that I had half felt him slip away but the rush of old memories had overwhelmed the sensation.


    The Baron laughed and waved a hand dismissively. ¡°They¡¯re all the same at that age aren¡¯t they Lord Dutair fascinated by all the mysteries of steam dare I say we might have a new acolyte of steam on our hands?¡±


    Father, obviously appreciating the Baron¡¯s graceful acceptance of the breach of etiquette, laughed politely. ¡°It is possible, the clergy calls to some after all and the Order[10] is always looking for more initiates.¡±


    Mother strode as fast as decorum permitted over to my younger brother and began to hiss in his ear as the Baron advanced on me hand outstretched.

 Eon 11301, Cycle of Koths Song, Season of Fire – Prologue 2

    ¡°Young lady Dutair, it is a pleasure to meet you.¡± He said, smiling widely. ¡°Your father and I have known each other for many eons.¡±


    I took his hand and smiled, ¡°The pleasure is all mine.¡± I lied looking into the eyes of the man I was about to steal from. I remember my heart racing like a runaway horse and I was sure that even with a lifetime of noble training a bit of that showed around my eyes. Luckily either the Baron didn''t notice or he believed it was nothing more than the nerves of a young girl wondering if her dress will fit the season. Either way he released my hand and bowed to my (smug and sorrowful respectively) siblings.


    ¡°I bid you all welcome to my most humble abode.¡± He said disingenuously waving a hand toward the door behind him. The smugness was bad enough on its own but combined with his overuse of the word humble and he made me want to vomit.


    However as mentioned I had a lifetime''s training at hiding my emotions so I decided to play the dutiful heir and looking demurely down at my feet I followed behind my parents with a sibling on each flank. The Baron and my father continued to talk as we ascended the steps, crossed the lawn and finally the Baron gestured at a doorman to throw open the manor''s main portal and we stepped inside.


    I am not ashamed to admit I boggled for a few seconds at the sheer opulence and enormity of the party. The word party doesn¡¯t really do it justice either; small polite war might suit it better.


    I remember that the room was only as large as our dining room but whereas that was a sparse silent space filled with dust and stillness this gold walled cavern was filled with people, tables, chairs, balloons, statues, urns, water features, soldiers, servants and most of all noise, heat and light. Most of the guests were human and most of them of the noble families but I saw a few of the other races scattered around as well. A Driltz envoy of the under kingdom towering above all the other guests and holding three whole trays of canap¨¦s, a eonian harpist played in the band nearest us; her eight arms moving like darting swallows back and forth I even saw a pack of Ltoje huddled together at the bottom of the stairs who rustled their carapaces in the sudden billow of cold air and clacked their mandibles in disapproval.


    As we entered the Baron waved and a brief but apparently genuine cheer echoed around the room temporarily drowning out the various bands. As the man of the night descended towards the dance floor to bask in the attention he was soon surrounded by sycophants and flunkies much like a corpse is covered in flies.


    The Dutair¡¯s were rather more subdued and subtle (as is the well known preference of our house) but we were well trained from other similarly tedious occasions. My sister broke away from our small procession first, apparently unable to contain herself any longer and immediately fell into a group of girls of a similar age and vulgarity of dress.


    Father glided off to talk to a small knot of sombre figures on the edge of the dance floor; the other house heads. They greeted him with tilts of their wine glasses and a slight narrowing of their eyes as yet another player entered their game, father for his part smiled with real joy for the first time that night finally away from socialising and back to politics.


    My mother (dragging my younger brother with her) vanished towards the centre of the party to seek out an even greater challenge than my father as she both had to find the wives and husbands of the other house heads and attempt to lever useful information out of them using small talk and scones whilst also trying to prevent Roland from embarrassing our house any further.


    For my part I (being left alone and unobserved) headed inwards towards the heart of the party swept along in the flow of people, usually I would be busy talking with the other heirs and laying the foundations of alliances and betrayals for eons to come but as you well know I had a far more important duty to complete that night.


    I scanned the ocean of people looking for an opening. The few guards in the building seemed to be focused entirely on the Baron and were mainly clustered around the stairs. This was a gathering of the great and the somewhat good after all; the guards were just there as extra ornamentation.


    Finally I saw an opening and took it; swiftly breaking through the throng and sliding out of the press like a darting minnow. I skirted the edge of the dance floor and struck out for the edge of the room where eyes rarely wandered.


    I was looking for a door or servant''s passageway... honestly I would have taken a coal chute anything to get me out of the dance hall and into the mansion proper. As I skirted a large sofa on which sat a blubbery textile-baron who was arguing with a leading seamstress I thought I saw a flash of  brass like a door handle on the wall up ahead. Pushing forwards steadily (yet politely) I suddenly noticed the press of people slackening, becoming sparse even and then I stumbled forwards and found myself on the far end of the dance hall opposite the grand staircase. This was a far more open space with doors leading to the toilets, conservatories and private meeting rooms and through which servants scurried carrying trays and carts.


    I was looking around trying to project an air of nonchalance whilst desperately trying to figure out where I was when I saw; her. She was sitting with her back against the fine golden wall on a low stone bench some twenty paces to my left. Rushing through the crowd I hadn''t noticed her or else I would never have emerged there.


    Lady Lilith Lyteth of the noble house Lyteth, the most ancient enemy of my house. They had once been far more of a danger to us before she was born, they had both the respect of the other Houses and the Arch-Doges ear but the revelation that the head of the house had a bastard daughter and further a bastard who was a half-breed and whose mother if popular rumour was to be believed was a Shaitan[11] (one of the magical races) had put pay to that. If the Arch-Doge hates anything truly and completely it is magic. Following the revelation of her birth and her subsequent legitimization[12] the House''s prestige had plummeted and it had never recovered more than a fraction of its power. My maid Lydia had once told me that even the girl¡¯s lack of magic had barely saved her from execution[13] such was the Arch-Doges'' fury at her existence. I am sure her family would have preferred to hide her away but to attend an event with less than one''s whole high family was, in Prasus, a far greater insult than bringing a half-breed along.


    I scowled at her with what I hoped was a haughty expression. She blinked at me twice; first with an outer set of eyelids as red as the rest of her skin and then with a second clear set that extended from the corners of her eyes like a cats. But the strangeness of that paled in comparison to her actual eye. Her pupils were upside-down golden pyramids in the centre of pure blackness, no whites or iris, just black and gold. I remember that she smiled at me (showing a mouth full of gleaming white and obviously razor sharp fangs) and waved a cocktail sausage almost companionably in my direction. The black of her horns and the pink of the sausage contrasted in a most stomach churning way. I was so nervous I unthinkingly waved back at a scion of my house''s most ancient enemy before I darted away into the crowd looking for a truly deserted patch of wall.


    I darted and wove through the ball again, even with all my training and practise I was still somewhat shaken by the enormity of what I was about to try (and no small amount by running into a seemingly friendly Lyteth), as I blundered I nearly stepped on the King of Carestilands shoes then turning to apologise I almost knocked down a hurrying waiter, only his quick reflexes saved his tray of canap¨¦s. After a few hasty curtsies I hurried past them and finally blundered into another patch of deserted wall. My nerves had almost gotten the best of me and I could feel cold fire filling my heart but I hastily extinguished it with an effort of will, hiding your emotions was a survival skill in Prasus. After a moment I straightened up, brushed my dress flat again and glanced around... and that was when I finally saw it. On the wall to my left was a long sky blue tapestry showing some historically inaccurate scene of bravery and nobility on the behalf of the Barons ancestors. It was just one of a million tacky ornaments polluting the great dance hall like any other piece of tat however this one was rippling ever so slightly; as if blown by the breeze.


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    I glanced around as casually as I could then reassured that I was unobserved in the mayhem of the soiree I darted behind the tacky wall hanging. If I had been wrong this would have been hideously embarrassing (and I¡¯d have probably broken my nose), luckily however I was right. Behind the tapestry was a short stone passageway which thanks to its lack of carpet and second hand illumination I instantly pegged as a servants corridor. I slunk inside quickly then paused for a second my heart hammering in my chest to listen for pursuit, but no one followed me or called after me and in retrospect there was no reason for anyone to do so. I was a noblewoman ducking out of a party by a perfectly accessible door next to the dance floor, for all anyone knew I was going to the kitchen or the ladies room or on some other private errand but I digress.


    I slipped along the corridor as stealthily as I could which back then wasn''t very but luckily it was deserted. Reaching the end after what felt like a hundred eons I headed left deeper into the mansion. I hadn''t been able to find out where the Baron kept the egg and I couldn¡¯t very well go around asking where his vault was. In fact I only knew that the egg existed at all because of a few rumours and the fact that I had sneaked a look at Des¡¯Lunt¡¯s order list last time me and father had paid her a visit in her studio to commission our new steam-carriage (even as the heir to a noble house the number of zeros under the price column had truly shocked me).


    Which is why dear reader I was wandering randomly back and forth in the Baron''s mansion looking for something that I was only quite sure even existed and which I had absolutely no idea of its location. In retrospect this entire ¡°heist¡± was a stupid thing to do and I''m luckily I didn''t realise that at the time.


    As it was I was walking along yet another unlit and sparsely decorated servant¡¯s corridor cursing myself for a fool for attempting this without a map when suddenly I heard approaching footsteps and muffled voices. Panic gripped me and I darted back into the shadows where my dress (of the darkest hue I had been allowed to pick this season) blended with the darkness around me to a really quite gratifying degree. Stuck between an appallingly tacky hat stand and a vase of wilting flowers I waited trying desperately to quiet my breath and hoping that the hammering of my heart wouldn''t give me away. I needn¡¯t have worried of course as servants going about their business are hardly likely to go poking around in the shadows and checking behind doors, a fact which I have often had cause to be thankful for long after that night.


    The two men I had heard entered the corridor at its far end both talking loudly, one of them holding a lantern and the other a tray full of empty wine glasses. They were most definitely not looking for me in any way (which if I had been thinking clearly I would have guessed) the first man kept the lantern he held aimed squarely at the floor and they laughed and joked as they passed me by.


    ¡°I hear the Barons pushed the boat out for this one.¡± Remarked the lantern holder as he passed by my hiding place.


    ¡°Really?¡± replied the other with relish, ¡°You reckon this time he didn''t water down the wine?¡±


    The first man had laughed and half stumbled; I could smell the drink on his clothes. ¡°Ha! No chance of that.... miserably skinflint.¡±


    The two continued past me both echoing the others sentiment until they were lost to sight. Even so I believe I stayed there in that shadow for a good five minutes not yet aware of how unlikely it was that a busy servant would bother checking behind him in a kitchen access corridor for hidden intruders. After I was sure they were both really gone I crept out of my extremely uncomfortable hiding place and back into the wane light where I paused again to wipe the sweat from my brow. It was only then that I belatedly remembered my rather pathetic attempt at anonymity.


    In the barren corridor I reached into the folds of my skirt and pulled out my mask, the mask that had started it all. I had heard about the Baron¡¯s cruelty whilst out shopping in the Golden Scion district, a district filled with as many gossiping nobles as boutiques. One lesser noble had been trying to impress just such a group of tittering idiots, he had told them about the Baron, about his vicious guards and his carefully crafted egg but with a tone more of admiration than reproach.


    I had been stood at the back of the crowd and I remember to this day thinking that someone should do something about him, someone should prove that even the nobles weren¡¯t above the law, that such callousness wasn''t the rule... then I had looked around and seen on some unnamed pedlars cart the mask. I honestly can''t recall exactly what it looked like, my very first mask. I think it was dark blue but it might have been black or purple. I do remember that it was smooth with a finish like glass. I nearly dropped it when I lifted it from its strap, looking into the eye sockets I realised that I was someone so why shouldn¡¯t I do something?


    I tossed the pedlar a handful of Silver Lire for the mask (each one alone worth five times the man¡¯s entire stall) he was so enthralled by the tumbling silver coins that I was sure he hadn''t gotten a clear look at my face as I slipped away into the crowd and even if he had I was just another spoiled noble girl buying some idle curio.


    So I stood there in the empty cold corridor. I raised the mask over my face and pressed it to my skin. I can remember that it was a crude mass produced volto carnival mask; probably carved from Earln[14] wood taken from a nearby floating forest, certainly nothing imported or rare but still putting it on made me feel... strange.


    Tightening the ear straps on my new mask I spun in that empty corridor like a dancer on a backed dance floor nearly turning a pirouetted, then I stalked away up the passageway (or at least walked in the way I thought was a stalk but it was more of an odd side to side stride in retrospect) feeling a new surge of confidence and poise. Looking back I wonder if that was the first time I ever felt that feeling as a mask goes on and the whole world changes... of course that''s not the trick is it? The trick is that the world stays the same and it¡¯s you who changes.


    As it was back then in the dark all I felt was a surge of confidence and a sense that I could take on the entire world. By the time I approached the end of the corridor I was very nearly strutting.


    Reaching the end and reining in my boisterous feet I peaked around the corner, spent a good few seconds wondering why all I could see was blackness, remembered that masks greatly reduce your peripheral vision and then tilted my head more to the side.


    Luckily, since I had spent a good twenty seconds staring at the inside of my own mask and wondering what had happened; the corridor was completely empty.


    This process repeated (minor my small blunder) for a handful of minutes as I scouted my way across the mansion. I of course had no way of knowing exactly how long I had spent blundering around in the dark but I was sure I wouldn''t be missed at the party yet, although I was almost missing it as one dusty deserted corridor lead to another equally deserted but somewhat dustier one and so on and so on. I was getting quite bored to be honest but I did at least still have the sense to head towards light and livery, the Baron wasn¡¯t likely to keep the precious egg in a servant¡¯s barracks after all. As I was musing upon this and wondering if that was a suitably criminal moment of cunning I finally came upon a brighter corridor, still somewhat dull and unadorned but lit at the far end by bright light. I followed the gleam like a moth and soon found myself at the bottom of a vast spiral staircase made from hardwood.


    Rising out of the depths of the manor step by patient step I was quietly amused to see the way that each landing and length of staircase became more elaborately decorated than the one before it, dull porcelain became smoothed stone then engraved then covered by wall hanging, lit by torches then candles then finally gas globes. Eventually the sumptuousness plateaued as the stairs themselves did and I was left standing on a large landing.


    In front of me on the landing was a wide open marble balcony curtained with drapes of pale pink silk, the floor was richly carpeted in deep blue plush and directly in front of me was a huge silver and gilt embossed door made from some rare imported wood that gleamed with dark and lustrous gleam in the gas globe light.


    As I stood there on the landing a sea breeze blew fresh night air across and in through the balcony¡¯s open doors setting the curtains fluttering and goose bumps rising all across my skin even as it carried the smell of sea salt to my nostrils. After a moment''s thought about the inherent nature of nobles I sidled up to the very valuable door to what was I had no doubt the Barons study (my fathered had one as well of course all lords and ladies did but his had a plain but heavily armoured door better to protect its contents and not attract attention). I pressed my hand gently against the varnished surface as I turned the handle; pushing with one hand and pulling with the other I slowly opened the door in complete silence.


    Padding gently into the room beyond I quickly scanned for any threats then satisfied I was alone I slid the door shut as silently as I had opened it. The study was as tasteless as I had expected from someone like Baron Fairbanks, wide and high with its walls obscured behind crests, trophies, bookcases and hung swords. The floor was utterly lost under a ridiculously thick carpet that made every step feel like wading through sand and even the ceiling was painted using gold flecked paint worth more than a peasant would earn in a lifetime. At the far end of the room was sat an antique desk and chair of old light brown wood both heavily engraved. But at the time I barely noticed any of this I barely noticed the room itself, all I saw was what sat proudly on the desk. Their glimmering and glittering was the treasure I was seeking, the reason the daughter of a noble family was creeping into a nominal ally''s private study, the egg.

 Eon 11301, Cycle of Koths Song, Season of Fire – Prologue 3

    It was sat on an elaborate brass and gold pedestal inside a huge glass safe surmounted with a ticksteel lock. I recognised ever-glass with ease (the slight purple sheen gives it away) as strong as steel but still see-through perfect for something you can''t risk being damaged but can''t bear to hide away. I could hear it ticking steadily where it sat; like the purring of a content mechanical cat.


    I rushed over to the safe without even sparing a thought to the idea of traps, defences or hidden guardians. Luckily for me the Baron was singularly unintelligent or possibly simply so arrogant that he truly didn''t believe anyone would dare to steal from him. Either way it was only when I reached the safe that I came face to face with my first real challenge of that evening; the elaborate ticksteel lock. As I peered into the keyhole I thought it looked incredibly hard to pick... although to be honest at that time I had no idea how to pick locks apart from a few vague memories of heist scenes in thriller novels that implied hair clips and lots of surreptitious arm movement. All I knew was that I could see lots of little wheels and barrels and stuff in it and I knew I would never be able to pick it nor did I stand any chance of smashing the glass not even if I dragged down one of the Barons ridiculous parade weapons. For a long moment the egg just sat there ticking quietly and mocking me as I thought deeply. But luckily for you dear reader and for the continuation of our tale I had something the dear Baron never thought a thief would possess.


    I reached into my sleeve and took out a seed; yes a real seed that I had taken from our mansions gardens that very morning. I pressed the little lump of life into the safes keyhole working it in as far as I could with my short nails, then when it was just out of my reach I stepped back and... looked around. I know it was silly I mean if anybody had been in there they¡¯d have tried to stop me by now but you can never be too sure when or where the Order might pop up. I didn''t want to do this but I had come too far and risked too much to give up now.


    I threw back my shoulders, took a deep calming breath and waved a hand. For a moment my palm flared with bright white light visible through my lace glove as I felt warmth flow through my whole body


    The lock quivered and then exploded, from inside it exploded a tangle of leaves and roots as the fern seed grew and grew. The bows and branches shattered the glass and brass like wet paper as they spread outwards, chunks of the former lock spiralled away through the air as the ever-glass panes buckled then shattered and fell from their frames. But for all the destruction it barely made a sound, in fact the only sound in the room was the susurration of living leaves and the muffled thud of glass fragments falling onto thick carpet even though the egg had stopped ticking.


    I smiled then reached into the ruined safe and took up the egg gently in both hands feeling the smooth cold weight of it.


    Being born a mage in Prasus might mean being a heretic under a constant death warrant but it certainly gives one a few neat tricks.


    Yes you just read that right I''m a mage, a person born at random cursed by the Aether with the taint of magic... or so the Church of the Divine Mechanisms says. Once long ago people like me were accepted in Prasus I mean by the Abyss we even had our own guilds! But now thanks to the AAL[15] and the Arch-Doge we are hunted down and killed the second we show our faces.


    So that''s me a person that, because of a simple quirk of birth, must be hounded down, beaten, hung, drawn, quartered, burned and then buried under an insultingly engraved tombstone if anyone ever figures out who or more precisely what I am. As if being part of the political game wasn¡¯t stressful enough already!


    Just to forestall further questions no I don''t know why I was born a mage nobody does. Some people are and some people aren¡¯t it¡¯s just a thing and if you¡¯re wondering what type of mage I am; my trapping (the common parlance for the type of magic a mage can use naturally) is life. I can control and generate it at will although I get a bit tired from force growing large stuff like trees... also sometimes when I use my magic I start glowing but I really do not know how or why I do that and I can''t turn it off or on it just kinda happens.


    So there I was a mage who had just used magic to break into a nobleman''s safe in one of the most heavily policed parts of the entire city, a city which kills my kind on sight. All because I decided that I needed to stick my nose in where it didn''t belong and do the right thing.


    That thought occurring to me was probably what started my paranoia, this had all been too easy, the Baron couldn¡¯t have just thought ¡°Oh I''m so important nobody will try to steal from me¡± there had to be something else, a trap, a trick, something!


    In retrospect I should have realised that the click was nothing more than my silver edged cuff knocking against the egg-stand. I should have realised that it didn''t mean anything, that it was nothing to fear, but I didn''t. All I knew was that as I lifted the egg from its tiny pedestal I had heard a tiny metallic click. Panic gripped my heart in an instant and I looked around terrified, expecting guards, traps, war golems and Inquisitors to all pop up out of the woodwork and start screaming ¡°Mage!¡±


    The subsequent silence only heightened my paranoia. I knew they were on their way charging along distant corridors with swords drawn. Some bells had rung, some alarms had screamed in some distant barracks and warriors without number were surging towards me. I knew that had to be true.


    I slipped the egg into one of the under pockets of my skirt (an addition that I had sewed myself, I know it¡¯s not traditional for women to sew but I¡¯ve never been one to stick too tightly to convention). Despite the large size of the artefact it didn''t even leave a bulge in the many folds, creases and frills of the dress (frilly was in that season... or so my sister said at least, again I don''t tend to pay much attention to the trends). After adjusting myself sufficiently to move freely I flew to a wall and lifted down one of the swords. I now know of course that this was a really stupid idea as the weapon I was so desperately scrabbling for was a decorative sword, unbalanced with a blunt edge and forged from gold rather than steel. In a fight it would be about as much use as a sharpened stick... probably less actually at least you might draw blood with the stick. At the time however I didn''t know or care about all that, I just wanted a weapon.


    I had taken fencing lessons in my youth of course, although not with much vigour and whilst fervently hoping I would never have to use them but now I was certain that an entire army of guards were pouring towards me howling for blood.


    I needed a sword.


    I swept the trophy weapon through the air once or twice. I vaguely felt you needed to do that when you picked up a new sword. The move is traditionally to test the weight and balance of a newly wielded weapon but I was just slashing the air. Ignoring how heavy the stupid prop sword was in my hands I dashed out onto the landing letting it clang loudly against the door frame as I exited.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    And that was when I heard the footsteps. With the benefit of hindsight some servant must have heard my clattering and banging and was going to see what was going on. I could have hidden or browbeat him with my title or just rather more literally browbeaten him with the stupid blunt sword.


    But I was certain that the entire city was charging up the tower after my blood so I turned and sprinted out onto the balcony. Leaping mid-step I landed on the balustrade, looking out over Prasus I took a deep breath as I readied myself for what came next. I was a pampered daughter of nobility after all, not an athlete.


    Turning on the spot and hearing the footsteps growing closer and closer I bent my legs, pushed as much magic into my muscles as I could and leapt upwards. I landed on the very lip of the rooftop, my feet scrambled madly for purchase for a moment and my arms wind milling wildly then one of my silly dancing shoes finally found a grip and I sprawled face first onto the rooftop.


    I stumbled back onto my hands and knees and scrabbled around in the moss and muck for the sword which had flown out of my grasp when I was trying to balance myself on the roof edge. Seizing the ridiculous velvet grip again I clambered to my feet and staggered away across the building. The three sisters were all full moons tonight and their soft white light washed across the entire city and made it seem to gleam. I was transfixed as I stared out at my hometown, at Prasus.


    First the eye saw the sea; and there was so much of it to see, all the way to the horizon unbroken by an island or continent just an endless vista of sky blue so flat and calm that sometimes you could mistake it for the sky.


    Then you saw the city below me, it was truly vast stretching for dozens of miles in every direction like some titanic stone octopus. The analogy seemed even more apt thanks to its tentacles, four huge curved spikes that protruded from the city at each cardinal direction and which were another dozen miles in length with both sides covered in docked ships like a sow''s suckling piglets.


    Sweeping in from these great dock spurs was the city proper, countless millions of buildings of every type imaginable. Huge manufactories jostled for space with noble mansions whilst cramped slums rubbed arms with watchhouses and dilapidated taverns. Dotted here and there were the forbidding grey bulks of Orders cloister-barracks¡¯ and the vast steaming tower temples belonging to the Church of the Divine Mechanisms, never one without the other of course. Even closer were the houses of the lesser nobility, the tiny  faux palaces and small pseudo-mansions huddled behind tall spiked walls which sheltered them from the commoners that dared to share an elevation with them.


    Finally all around me were the foothills of the true nobility, their vast mansions and sprawling palaces built atop the remnants of the gleaming marble islands that had once long ago spawned the city. They grew up and up around me, each noble to a hill, each house to a mountain, growing and huddling like a crowd of mushrooms all around the centre of the city. Turning on my heel I looked back towards the centre now. There it towered behind me, a seemingly endless edifice of marble and steel and silver, the heart of the city, the palace of Prasus, the Spire. The Arch-Doges personal fortress palace, once it was the world¡¯s most isolated mountain now it was fortified with steel and copper and great machines to become a redoubt that could weather the end of the world.


    Looking back down I sighed with contentment, this grand vista, this endless expanse... all of this was my home. A trade city without peer where it was said if you can''t buy it here you can''t buy it anywhere. Together its ancient nobles, advanced technology and vast navy made it one of the greatest, oldest, most powerful and certainly most beautiful cities in the whole world.


    Prasus, the city on the sea.


    I could really see why the Baron¡¯s ancestors built on this spot.


    I turned away from the spectacular view and focused back on the matter at hand. Grasping the silly sword to my chest I scanned the rooftop for threats. Black slate tiles stretched out in every direction dotted with towers, turrets and endless steam pipes all coated in old moss and piles of leaf mould but totally devoid of guards or watch automata. Sprinting low across the moonlit expanse I came to a wide flat area next to a small crumbling minaret, leaning against the tiny tower was a trellis hung with roses in full bloom.


    Slipping back into the shadow around the tiny tower I looked around then reached down and pulled the egg from its pocket in my skirts. Holding it up with my back to the moons I studied it in the silvery light. It was cold and heavy made from polished gold of the purest quality and set with thousands of tiny gems every one smoothed flat, the gems formed constellations of colour all across the eggs surface which when I looked up I realised mirrored the stars above Prasus down to the most minute detail. As I watched tiny cogs spun, chattered and ticked all counting down to the next hour and the next song, I idly wondered when it had restarted and what had made it do so.


    It was whilst I frowned at the tacky bauble wondering how it could be worth so much misery and if I had bumped it on something in my escape that my eye caught a... change. Not a motion; not really simply a change from one state to another. I slowly lowered the egg and stared.


    Next to me in the drooping trellis hung hundreds of roses and as I watched their full red blooms were.... draining away. The crimson of the petals was being overtaken by veins or tendrils of pure blackness which crept and spread along the flowers flesh like a jar of black ink upended into a basin of water. After a mere handful of seconds the roses were as dark as fresh cut ebony. I goggled at them in astonishment, my mouth hanging open behind my mask.


    That was when I heard the chuckle... and when my entire life changed forever.


    Spinning on the spot I stared wide eyed and horror struck at the person now sharing my rooftop. Their gender was obscured but they were short; head and shoulders shorter than me at the very least and they stood with the silent and still grace of a ballerina at rest but with the straight back and arms of a veteran soldier. But none of that was what I noticed first, what I noticed was their outfit. They wore red; all red a red half cloak and doublet, red pantaloons and boots and they too wore a mask made from pure red porcelain.


    Or at least I thought it was porcelain nowadays I''m not so sure; but regardless it looked like blood, like freshly shed blood somehow caught as it flowed from a wound and hammered into a flat and featureless mask. And when I say featureless I mean it their mask is entirely feature obscuring no mouth, no nose and crimson smoked glass covering the eye sockets in fact the only thing that did stand out were the horns, six long red curled porcelain horns that sat upon the figures brow and curved back across their head


    The figure bowed to me, flicking their cloak back as they did so. I saw that what I had taken for a shadow around their neck was actually a waterfall of pure black curls that fell from their head, the mask I noted was only a half mask covering the face not the whole head.


    I stood and gawped at the figure for a moment then I remembered my manners and bowed as well. The figure raised a hand to their covered mouth to muffle a laugh like they were enjoying a private joke and then with a movement so fast I couldn''t see it their blades were bared and in their hands. They were exquisite duelling pieces, even I could tell that, a pair of rapier and parrying dagger each made from a strange alloy that shone brightly like silver along the centre of each sword but seemed to crack and darken towards the edges. Both basket hilted by the same strange steel covered in what looked like metal roses with rubies for petals which grew and flowered all across the basket guards encasing the figures'' hands in silver and red.


    I raised my blade shakily in a two handed grip pointing it towards the red figures chest, the blunt conversation piece waved backwards and forwards between us as my hands shook. I was sure at the time I was facing some sort of elite guard (obviously wrong as they lacked any sort of uniform and nobles are particular about that) or maybe even an Inquisitor (Also wrong as they didn''t have the traditionally jolnek[16] blades).

 Eon 11301, Cycle of Koths Song, Season of Fire – Prologue 4

    The person in the blood mask chuckled once more, apparently amused by my defiance then they flew at me, which is really the only word I can use. The blur of their feet barely seemed to touch the ground as they ran like a swooping dove or diving hawk. I met their first strike more by luck than judgement, parried and pushed back.


    The red figure in the mask like blood was an expert I could tell immediately, they parried my first clumsy slash with contemptuous ease and delivered a riposte that hacked a line of fabric out of my puffed sleeve even as I nearly fell over trying to avoid it.


    I darted backwards a few steps trying to keep some distance from the dancing figure then went for an amateurish feint stepping back and then forwards rapidly and lashing out with a quick chop as I did so. The red figure in the blood mask wasn''t fooled for a second and caught my blade on their left cross-guard then as I tried to pull it back they locked it in place with their right and kicked out; catching me full in the chest. Their strength was nearly inhuman and I found myself flying backwards leaving my clumsy display sword trapped in its new steel cage.


    I landed heavily on the tiles some distance away winded and gasping, I only managed to look up when I heard the clatter of the two halves of my former sword hitting the tiles in front of me.


    Gazing past the sad steel I met the gaze of the red figures. Slowly they crossed their blades, letting the swords scrape loudly against one another, then they began to prowl towards me.


    I remember feeling terrified, angry, anxious, and something else... something entirely inappropriate for a noble to feel... excitement. Here I stood not in some stupid soir¨¦e but on a rooftop having a fight with a strange swords master, no boring dancing or tiring small talk for once in my life I felt entirely free.


    And when I feel like that I have a great deal of trouble keeping down... what I am. As it turns out it was a pretty good thing that I wasn''t able to but really in hindsight I''m a bloody idiot and it''s only dumb luck that I wasn''t killed either directly or indirectly because of losing control.


    I leapt to my feet uncoiling like a snake, my hands already glowing. The person in the blood mask darted backwards and slashed at me but I slapped their rapiers away, the metal screaming and sparking as it glanced off my shining skin. I leapt forwards and the red warrior dodged to my side slamming their rapiers into my gut as they passed. It was a masterful move which should have ended the fight but instead the metal just bounced off my skin. Staggered forwards from the impact of the blow I slammed my hands into the wall of the minaret and smiled as the bricks shattered like glass under my fingers.


    Now with my expensive dress cut to ribbons I advanced my light nearly blinding now. I swung a glowing fist and the red figure tried to parry the magical strength in my fingers matched then exceeding their own as I sent them hurtling backwards. They landed like a cat as I lumbered forwards and kicked out. The blood masked figure vaulted over the blow and slammed their blades into my chest with a deafening ring. My magic had totally suffused my skin now, hardening it like steel and causing any injury from a sprained ankle to a run through torso to heal so quickly it was like the wound had never been dealt. I should have been invincible... but as the red figures rapiers struck my chest I felt a flash of pain. Looking down I saw two long char edged scratches had been burned into my now smouldering dress.


    I looked up agog at my opponent who chuckled once more the beautiful silver like blades of their rapiers now coated in what looked like flaming blood which dripped from their points and caused the metal to glow cherry red.


    A mage? I was so shocked at the revelation that I barely dodged their counter attack. The twin blades bit into the rooftop where I had been standing less than a second ago, there was a flash of bright red light and the tiles exploded, shards of burning slate fountaining up into the air and raining down upon the rooftop like tiny falling stars. Blood mask didn''t stop moving for even a second, as the retort of their explosive strike echoed across the silent city they charged towards me and I... well I charged them right back.


    I know it was a stupid thing to do I mean they had me outclassed just with a blade, the only reason I was even alive was my magic and now they had that as well (and I could tell their trapping was far more combat oriented than mine was), I had no chance at all to beat them... and yet I couldn''t make myself run away. I finally felt alive in the blue edge darkness of the night under the light of the three sisters, I felt my heart race and my magic surge as I took my life into my own hands.


    Hurtling towards one another I felt the magic in my veins growing stronger and stronger even as I saw blood mask¡¯s blades burn brighter and brighter then; an arm¡¯s length from one another, we both stopped and swung.


    The ringing impact of magical flesh on magical metal blew both of us backwards across the rooftop in an explosion of heat and a pulse of air.


    Landing in a heap on the far side of the rooftop, I looked around wildly for a weapon, quickly discounting my old bisected sword, my eye fell on the crumbling minaret to my left. As blood mask leapt back onto their feet I wrenched a stone statue free from the tiny tower and charged towards the red figure with a joyous howl on my lips.


    Blood mask for the first time that battle was forced back onto the defensive as I pelted after them waving the huge lump of old stone like a flail, back and back step by step they had to dodge endlessly as I waved the liberated gargoyle through the air and then.... they slipped. It was a tiny motion as their foot caught on a patch of moss and they stumbled backwards. I seized upon it feeling victory in my grasp I hurled the statue directly at them... and that''s when victory slipped away again.


    It was a feint; a masterful one at that. The motion of the supposed trip reversed with balletic grace and blood mask somersaulted backwards over the clumsy projectile, landing like a cat they slide forwards and in under my wide open guard and I felt my legs become a mass of agony as their red hot rapiers bit deeply into my skin. Pumping magic into the wounds as fast as I could I reached out to grab them only for the blood mask to leap forwards, vaulting me easily and even managing a midair stab that I barely deflected with a glowing hand.


    My dress had been reduced to mere tatters and even those were covered in burn marks, my muscles ached, my skin throbbed but worst of all... I was running out of magic[17].


    Desperation seizing me I turned and reached out trying to pull on the life of the moss and ivy that coated the roof. I''m not sure what I was actually trying to do; I was mostly running on instinct by that point and besides it was far too late.


    As I tried to focus my magic Blood mask darted in and planted a shoulder in my chest so hard that even with my steel skin I felt the wind leave my lungs. Then as I staggered back they began to rain blows down on my glowing skin. I hadn''t ever stood a chance, I realised as the blood mask drifted past one of my flailing fists like a phantom and struck me so hard I felt a rib break. They had been letting me win before now, never striking a telling blow dancing back and forth, toying with me. The few seconds when I had a chance of winning were when I had shocked them with my magic but now I was truly outmatched.


    I fell to one knee lashed out wildly with my fists feeling my magic failing even as I did so I could feel my skin becoming weaker by the second even as my glow faded. Blood mask darted in and out under my guard, out of my reach leaving burning punctures dotting my skin. They aimed for my uselessly flailing arms, striking them again and again until they went limp, pain and exhaustion finally overcoming magic and robbing me of the last vestiges of my defences. Only then did the red warrior step in close and slam the flat of their boot into my chest, sending me hurtling across the rooftop for a second time. I landed with a heavy thump against the remains of the minaret staring up winded and wounded at the stars and the black roses upon their trellis.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Above me the blood red mask loomed into my vision, the deep red of their mask reflected in their long cracked silver rapier as they raised it for a thrust. I am not ashamed to admit I closed my eyes, I thought this was the end.


    I heard a single swish and a hissing whisper as the sword cut... and then I felt a soft impact on my chest.


    I opened my eyes.


    The red warrior stood a few steps away from me, rapiers sheathed and head cocked and; on my chest lay a single black rose, its freshly cut stem smoking slightly.


    I remember goggling at it for so long that blood mask chuckled again, obviously enjoying my surprise. As I looked up at them I reflexively took the rose into my hand as my magic died completely plunging the rooftop into moonlit darkness again.


    ¡°Uhhhh...¡± I mumbled. I am sure you agree that at the time I could hardly have been expected to compose a better response to this sudden change of circumstances. ¡°Thank you.¡± Eons of etiquette training did come to my aid however and it is always a good idea to be polite to swords masters.


    Blood mask giggled this time (actually giggled!) and bowed once more


    ¡°For such a fine young lady... and a worthy opponent.¡± She said in a voice as sweet as sin and soft as silk.


    Then with barely a motion she stepped backwards off the rooftop, for a second her cape billowed upwards as she fell then she vanished into the night.


    I think I gasped... or possibly swore but even as I did so I scrambled back to my feet and sprinted desperately to the edge. The blood masked girl had gone, no windows were open, no bushes rustled, no grass was disturbed she had simply vanished as if she¡¯d never been.


    I sat on that rooftop for a long while feeling the bitter taste of fading fear in my mouth and letting my magic heal my charred wounds. I had fallen into a fugue of fatigue and puzzlement but even so I remember that I never let go of that rose.[18]


    By the time I returned to the party the candles were guttering and the few remaining dancers that drifted across the hall seemed to be propping one another up more than anything.


    I entered the room as circumspectly as I could; landing on the unobserved lawn outside and sneaking up onto the patio. From there I simply walked into the room confident anyone who saw me would simply think I had been out enjoying the night air and cooling down not having a heart racing sword duel with a strange magical blade-mistress dressed all in red.


    As it was of course nobody even bothered to notice me. I simply wandered in and draped myself with calculated weariness on a balustrade overlooking the sunken dance floor as if I was an ardent dancer who had twirled the night away; confident nobody would be looking closely enough to realise just how tired I actually was. Looking around with calculated idleness I noticed father shaking hands with the head of some noble house whilst mother and Roland both sat nearby. Mother so that she could give my father input on his political decisions and Roland so he could have an eye kept on him. Casting my gaze further up the hall I saw the gaudy form of Allegra chattering with a large group of similarly dressed young girls; the unfavoured heirs and younger children of the other houses no doubt.


    Shifting on the spot I fiddled with my dress slightly, I hadn''t wanted to do this but going back into the soir¨¦e with obvious battle damage couldn''t be considered so I had rapidly grown some soft flat vines from the rose trellis then wrapped them over the cuts and burns. It wasn¡¯t perfect but I knew people would mistake it for some kind of new fashion statement as the heir of a noble house I was supposed to try to set trends.


    As I thought that father bowed to lord whoever it was and taking mothers hand began to stride away towards the doors collecting my brother and sister along the way. Father nodded at me as they passed and I dutifully dropped into formation with my siblings, the five of us gracefully glided towards the wide lacquered doors and our distant steam carriage.


    ¡°Ah my Lord and Lady Dutair are you leaving us so soon?¡±


    Suddenly Baron Fairbanks loomed out of a group of gossiping nobles next to the door and smiled at us like a reef shark catching sight of supper. In retrospect it''s obvious he would make proper farewells to all his more important guests but I didn''t think that at the time, I had my eyes fixed firmly on the floor and my heart pounding in my ears. The clockwork egg in my pocket suddenly seemed to weigh far more than it should have, I was just glad it had stopped ticking again for some reason whilst I was on the rooftop.


    ¡°We thought it best we return home before the sisters complete their full circuit.¡± Said my father polity


    The Baron laughed, ¡°oh but of course thank you for attending anyway, I hope you shall come to my next one.¡± His face suddenly sharpened as his eyes hardened and he leant in. ¡°Just between you and I, Lord Dutair, my next party will be far grander to celebrate me finally achieving... well what I deserve.¡±


    He leant back again and smiled. ¡°I shall look forward to your attendance.¡±


    Father is not a stupid man far from it in fact and he knew exactly what the Baron had his heart set on and both how hard to achieve but how very profitable it was. He nodded at the Baron slowly with a calculating look in his eye. ¡°Of course Lord Fairbanks our houses have to stick together after all.¡±


    With that obvious question hanging in the air father led us out. I was still shuffling along at the back of our little group, sweat running down my brow and praying that I could get to the carriage at least before the alarm was raised and the Baron, the army and the Inquisition all came pouring out of the woodwork howling for my blood. With the benefit of hindsight it was obvious I needn¡¯t have worried, no servant would dare enter their master¡¯s study without his direct permission and as far as I am aware the first person to discover the theft was the Baron himself some four hours later shortly after the last few partygoers finally went home.


    And with that last hurdle jumped I was in the clear, one hot stuffy ride in our steam-carriage later and there I was walking back into the safety of our mansion which was sat firmly in the most secure part of the most exclusive neighbourhood in all of Prasus of course. Its huge pitch-black perimeter wall was topped with wicked spikes, guards slowly stalking through its vast gardens with hands on sword hilts ready to draw, Butlers and flunkies flocking around our coach bowing and scraping every few steps; a hundred obstacles for the Baron if he was tearing after us with blood vengeance in mind.


    But of course he wasn¡¯t. My parents congratulated me and my sister on our conduct and remanded my younger brother to his tutor for more lessons in discipline before they retired to bed. Allegra nodded to me and left for her room no doubt to dream of even tackier dresses and more idle conversation and then...  I was free.


    I took the steps up to my bedroom three at a time confident that if I slipped my magic would heal me. That lack of subtlety should show you just how out of my mind with relief I was. Moments later I was slamming my door behind me and pulling that ridiculous dress off.


    I got re-dressed into my pyjamas and looked across at the egg. I hadn''t really meant to succeed or more accurately I hadn''t really planned what to do if I did but here I was back home safe and sound with the treasure and the Baron none the wiser. I remember that I sat there for several minutes wondering just what in the Abyss I was supposed to do with the egg now.


    I supposed I could sell it but how do you find someone who buys stolen goods? Just wander down alleys in a dock spur and ask random people? I knew that I really should just get rid of it, maybe smash it to pieces or throw it over the edge of Prasus itself but I couldn''t bring myself to, after all the stress and fear and fierce joy it had just cost me far too much to throw it away.


    In the end I knelt down and began to fiddle with one of my floorboards. Being a noble meant that one learnt the arts of concealment and subterfuge at a young age.


    I levered up my loose floorboard and dropped the egg down next to my hidden things (a sack of stolen chocolates, my older brother¡¯s old journal, my own diary and a few tacky romance novels from the library that I refused to let anyone know I read). A few seconds later I un-tucked the black rose from my hair where it had been sitting and dropped it in after the egg, then I pushed the floorboard back into place and stood up brushing the dust off my dress as I did so.


    At that time in my life I had never been so exhausted and so the second my contraband was safely hidden I fell back into my bed. I lay still on top of the quilt for a moment then staring up at the ceiling I promised myself.


    ¡°I''m never doing anything like that ever again.¡±

 Interlude the First - The Hunt Begins

    On a wind whipped Prasus rooftop stands a figure. Tall and proud with a hawkish face and long black hair that is tugged this way and that by the fingers of the wind. He is clad in pure black apart from two things, the first is a golden cogwheel shaped symbol of Koth hung around his neck and second are four shining steel blades affixed to his limbs two along the edges of his arms and two along the backs of his legs. At the moment this man stands looking out at the sleeping world with an air of curiosity mixed with confidence, the very picture of serene civility.


    To his right stood a far less composed figure. The honourable Baron Fairbanks pulls at his tight collar and sweats profusely, his beautifully folded cravat has been irrevocably ruined by the jerky motions but he barely notices; he is far too angry.


    The first figure looks around the rooftop they stand on. He has seen the ruined wall of the minaret, he noted the missing gargoyle, he ran a finger along a deep molten gash in the stone of the rooftop, he pulled a single black bloom from its trellis and sniffed at it and finally he stands there on the lip of the rooftop and stares out at the city his fingers drumming against the cogwheel symbol above his heart as his mind works.


    The Baron is talking still tugging at his outfit, ¡°I mean what else could it be? What can change the colour of roses?!¡± he gestures frantically down at the rooftop, ¡°and there is a tree where my safe used to be!¡± panting the man wipes his brow with a silk handkerchief. ¡°... and... I mean when my servants told me they had heard the sounds of fighting on the roof I thought they were lying but...¡± He gestured mutely at the devastation on the rooftop and the shattered pieces of his dress sword that lay on the ground in front of him.


    After a long moment the first man turned to his companion and nodded, ¡°Thank you for alerting us Baron Fairbanks we will look into this matter immediately. You can leave it with the Order sire... and we¡¯ll send a team round to repair your rooftop.¡±


    The Baron smiled at the Inquisitor, he always did enjoy entertaining the warriors of Koth; so very polite. ¡°Oh thank you, thank you! I wasn''t sure if I would be wasting your time but I thought it best to inform you anyway just in case.¡±The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Most wise,¡± reassured the first man smoothly. ¡°If you have any other information regarding these... criminals please do not hesitate to write to us.¡±


    ¡°Oh I won¡¯t I won¡¯t,¡± said the Baron. ¡°I am always happy to do my duty to Koth, thank you lord Inquisitor.¡±


    ¡°Not a lord yet sir... Nightsbane is fine.¡± Said Inquisitor Nightsbane looking down at the noble, he briefly considered killing the man but dismissed the notion quickly. He was wearing his ceremonial fighting blades and he didn''t want to get blood on them.


    Looking down off the rooftop the Inquisitor spotted something and raised an eyebrow then taking a step forwards he plummeted. The Baron rushes after him falling to his pudgy knees on the very lip of the shingles and staring down in wonder as the Inquisitor kicks off the manor wall and lands as light as a feather next to one of his gardening automatons.


    The brass bag of blades, shears and tubes is entirely still and silent like it had run out of ticks but the Baron knew that was impossible, why he employed a man just for the purpose of ensuring his automata were all wound up correctly and with regularity!


    The Inquisitor for his part seemed fascinated by the silent machine, he sat sock still next to the device for a long minute then he turned his gimlet gaze on the key sticking from its side. Experimentally he winds it a few times and sigh¡¯s a satisfied sigh when the golem stays resolutely still.


    ¡°I am so sorry Nightsbane sir,¡± called the Baron''s distant voice from the rooftop. ¡°I thought I had purchased Church approved golems I will have it sent back right...¡±


    ¡°Oh there''s no worry Baron, it should start working again in a few minutes.¡± Said Nightsbane personably, he was already starting to regret not killing this odious little twerp.


    ¡°Oh thank you lord,¡± said the Baron, forgetting the correct form of address again. ¡°I am so honoured to have a personal repair conducted by an Inquisitor truly sir it¡¯s...¡±


    Nightsbane turned out the idiotic nobles babbling and stared at the automaton, he waved his symbol of Koth across it and nodded with a self satisfied air as the holy mechanism suddenly sprang back to life and began to plod away across the grass.


    ¡°Two at least,¡± he muttered to himself. Gently he lifted the black rose from his lapel and sniffed at its dark bloom before tucking it back into his pocket. ¡°Two active mages... after all this time?¡±


    And finally for the first time that evening he smiled.

 The Month of Fire - 1

    I reached out and tried the silver chased handle of the huge oak door before me and grinned invisibly under my mask when it turned smoothly in my grip looks like one treasury guard is going to be looking for a new job I thought to myself before I quickly slipped into the shadows beyond the portal and swung it closed behind me.


    Darting along the corridor beyond I took a sharp left then a hard right just as the map I had memorised said I should. I was moving quickly but, thanks to some training by a true expert and a lot of practical experience, I had learned to walk with catlike grace. The smooth stone brick walls didn''t even echo as I nearly sprinted down the passageway.


    Normally I would be more cautious obviously. You can''t become a successful thief without proper caution but here and now I just didn''t have time. The whole plan was laid out to the second and if I wasn''t inside the vault before the ticksteel doors automatically locked at midnight the whole thing would be ruined.


    My heart was hammering in my chest and my palms were sweating but it didn''t feel unpleasant, quite the opposite. All I could feel was burning fire and living lightning in my veins, even after all these years that feeling never went away.


    If you can understand that, wonderful! If you can''t... well that''s probably for the best its part of growing up in a repressive domineering and overbearing family. Most people find situations like a heist or sword fight terrifying but having spent the first two decades of my life nodding and smiling like a good little doll I was revelling in finally being free. And on top of that I got a chance to fix some of Prasus¡¯ more glaring social problems. Doing good and having fun doing it I mean what¡¯s not to like?


    And here was a fine opportunity, nobles hated having their fancy toys stolen and there was an Abyss of one here. If what we had heard was right the duchess Margovia (who¡¯s mansion I was currently half a mile and several disabled security systems into) had acquired a piece of ticksteel called an ¡°Aetheria resonance and magnetic ionosphere disruptor¡± I didn''t have a clue what it did but with a name like that I didn''t much care; it just sounded expensive.


    With my thoughts happily occupied with stealing riches from the nobles, helping out the downtrodden peasants and adding something new to my trophy case I padded through one final shadow filled room and arrived at the treasure vault''s outer doors.


    I looked at them then smiled to myself and raised my mace, the burnished copper of its flanges gleamed even with only one sister hanging in the heavens tonight.


    I spun it in my grip expertly (I had made it after all if I''m not an expert who was?) and pried the end of the large heavy oblong pommel. Inside rows of spikes, spirals and spigots gleamed dully. I pulled out the correct lock pick and set to work, I was still a novice of course but the outer door didn''t have a very good lock. You must remember that nobles are the stingiest people you will ever meet, they never spend any money that they don''t have to, most peasants are surprised by this not realising that it is the reason these peoples became nobles in the first place.


    I have no doubt in fact that the duchess only invested in her new inner vault door, a piece of indestructible unpickable ticksteel worth a cool thousand gold Lire, because of the recent crime wave (which I could only claim partial credit for). She would never go to the cost of installing two and after some circumspect questioning of a maid who had previously worked there (when she applied to our house) I found out she had left the outer door in place because its patina suited her wall hangings. Deduce from this some measure of the one I was about to steal from.


    Anyway within a few seconds the door swung open and I silently slithered inside... or that''s what I would like to say. Honesty compels me to admit that really I waddled in, tripped over and banged my shin rather loudly on an inordinately large and hard vase in the room beyond. I grabbed it before it hit the ground but still the sound of disturbed porcelain seemed to echo.


    My heart now truly racing I decided to throw an amount of caution to the wind (I had learned however never to throw it all away) and bolted across the next room like a hare, then the next, then the next, I knew I was running short on time when I finally found my destination, a wide open marble foyer at the very end; a hugely bulky brass door frame twice as wide as I was tall that just screamed ¡°Vault Door¡±. I dashed across the white tiled colonnade and slid the last few metres through the vault door on my knees even as I heard the ticksteel in the walls come alive around me. A half second later the vault door slammed shut like a guillotine.


    Standing beyond the door I panted hard for a moment then pulled myself together and looked around at the inner vault. It was a titanic room perfectly circular with a domed glass ceiling and a large gallery that ran all the way around its width and it was on this gallery that I stood, the entire scene was half concealed in darkness lit only faintly by the light of the solitary sister that hung that night in the heavens no torches shone on walls or candles on sills in the darkened vault. Craning my neck up to stargaze for a brief second and I was satisfied to note that the sister was in precisely the right place I was just in time. Finally I took a few steps forwards and with a deep breath I leant over the golden balustrade and stared down at my prize.


    At the centre of the vault was a circular sunken area carpeted in black and white tiles and in the very centre of this expanse was a huge glass viewing case.... and a strange one at that It looked rather like a twisted pyramid, four sided but as if it had melted and been spun on its axis as it did so bunching and twisting in on itself to form strange knobbly lines out of the Ever-Glass that it was forged from but this wasn''t what I noticed, what I noticed was sat on a cushion dimly visible within the contrivance of purple tinted glass. A long bronze tube covered in tiny dials and with a hinged hatch at one end around the fitted edges of which shone a soft blue light barely stronger than the moonlight but which I could still somehow feel on my skin from across the room.


    Looking at the device I allowed myself a small smile, it matched the blueprints I had stolen the previous night perfectly. This was my target; the aether disruptor.


    I could have strolled right over the central plinth and grabbed it... but since the floor was pressure wired this would have been a really stupid thing to do.


    Instead I scampered along the gallery until I found a couple of bookcases, us nobles stick them everywhere even I don''t know why we do it, it¡¯s just what we do. Also we tend to fill the shelves with blank volumes, old notepads, cookbooks and out of date almanacks that we¡¯ve had rebound in leather rather than actual real books, I mean who just has thousands of leather bound books lying around their house...?


    Anyway I grabbed the huge heavy bookshelf and clambered up it using the shelves like rungs on a ladder until I stood quite happily on the top, the high ceiling still some seven or eight metres above me at this point as I flourished my mace once again. Aiming its head carefully at the distant plinth I slammed my hand down on the hidden trigger.


    The flanges on my maces head shook then snapped upwards forming four equidistance spikes then the entire head shot off the maces handle and flew across the room trailing a long black cable. It landed perfectly, wrapping itself around a ghastly gilt cherub on the opposite wall, I tugged the line a few times but it held fast.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I breathed deeply, rolled my shoulders, stretched my arms... and leapt off the bookshelf, clicking the switch again as I did so.


    I plummeted towards the floor for a long terrifying second wondering if my mace had failed, if I was going to plummet. Then the internal motor caught and my arm felt like it was being ripped from its socket as I was drawn through the air, hurtling towards the case well above the (possibly) lethal floor.


    I would love to claim I landed perfectly however I am again forced to admit that I actually slammed face first into the case (my hard mask making the damage infinitely worse), this was made all the more embarrassing my mace then suddenly detaching from its cherub and nearly slamming into the floor, only a lightning fast trigger pull drew it back into its handle again.


    Saying some words that a woman of my breeding really shouldn''t know I scrambled down from the glass safe placing my feet carefully only on the edges of the single white tile that the case itself sat on. The blueprints I stole had assured me that the plinths tile was not wired. I stopped to curse my clumsiness and pulled off my mask, stupid I know but it was heavy and I felt sure I had broken my nose.


    Luckily my bones were still intact and as you have been so very patient I will tell you about my newish mask; the face I became known for (to several people for good reasons and to millions of people for very bad reasons, there is no justice). It was a traditional full face Prasian carnival mask in many ways sporting thin pursed lips, rounded cheeks and a pointed chin but unlike a normal mask which was sculpted from porcelain mine was carved (rather crudely I admit) from quartz. Yup you read that right, quartz. Which was a real pain to get let me tell you, you ever had to explain to a noblewoman why you want about two kilograms of rough quartz?


    It only covered the front half of my face allowing my (if I may say so) extremely fine silver-white hair to trail out behind me. The milky white quartz had another benefit but that one will take a little while to demonstrate.


    Anyway after ensuring I wouldn''t have to explain away a broken nose to my family I slipped my mask back on and examined the pyramid pedestal for a moment. It took me two crabwise shuffling circuits to find what I was looking for but after less than a minute I did, a tiny brass lock bar set into the bottom of one of the pyramids four faces.


    Luckily the Baroness was rather unintelligent and hadn''t thought to keep the blueprints for her safe in a different office to those of her vault. With a whistle and a grin I deftly extended my mace''s lockpicks again and set to work on the tiny metal bar. As I said before I''m not that good with the old pins and picks... but with the blueprints for the lock sitting snugly in my head I didn''t need to be.


    And so after a mere handful of seconds I was tugging gently on the hinge pin of the lock and watching as the glass door swung silently outwards, inside the aether disruptor glittered invitingly like a pearl within an oyster.


    I reached out.


    There was a scream of metal on metal a distant sound of rushing steam and with a single heartbeat huge steel walls had shot out of the ground around the case blocking it from view behind impregnable steel. I stood and gawped at the defences for a moment wondering briefly (with the absent mindedness of shock) whether I should come back and try to steal it again tomorrow. Then common sense kicked me in the ribs and yelled that I¡¯d been made at exactly the same time as I heard slow mocking clapping.


    Nothing good ever follows mocking clapping.


    I turned around and saw Duchess Loren Ashford herself, she was standing in the gallery behind me nearly glowing in a long dress of silver and gold (literal silver and gold. The ¡°in¡± theme that season was clothes made from bars of precious metal with chain links to hold them together). The elevated position, the element of surprise, the glowing gown of gold, all of these things should have made her intimidating but instead I remember thinking that she looked... ratty. Her posturing did nothing to change the fact. Her nose was long and hooked, her teeth jutted noticeably out of her mouth, her eyes were tiny and beady and her entire face was scrunched up in a mixture of rage and avarice leading to the overall impression of a rat that had been presented with an unexpected bill. Her light brown hair didn''t help it either being a shade that could only be called mousy.


    Also she was tiny and looked like a stiff breeze could knock her over but the pair of furnace-knights flanking her were a different story. Each looked to be at least two metres tall and that was before they had strapped on their vast ticksteel suits of powered plate mail. If you included the boiler, flying pendants and huge pauldrons then they were problem pushing four metres at least and both clutched to their chests a claymore sword of razor sharp steel that was easily as long as I was tall.


    Obviously the smartest thing would have been for the duchess to have her knights charge me with their machine enhanced strength and oversized swords, in the close confines of the vault I wouldn''t have had a chance (sans magic). But equally obviously anyone who mockingly claps can never resist a good monologue.


    ¡°Ah our little thief,¡± she bowed and waved an arm. ¡°Welcome to my humble abode.¡±


    I had sighed and remembered those exact same words dripping like poison from a certain Baron¡¯s mouth only a few cycles before. The arrogant aristocracy did so like that turn of phrase; I think they thought it made them sound cunning and sinister. I thought it made them sound like... well a word I was not supposed to know or understand.


    ¡°It''s a lovely place,¡± I retorted. ¡°Slightly too much metal for my taste though.¡± I hiked my thumb over my shoulder to indicate the blast shutter behind me.


    The duchess squinted at me obviously unhappy that I was making jokes now but she rallied magnificently. ¡°I am very nearly impressed that you had the gall to attack MY home, luckily I was prepared,¡± she smiled widely. ¡°For you see some of the lesser families of my house are officers in the watch and they informed me when the designer of my new vault suffered a sudden burglary, when they told me the designs for my security system had been stolen I knew instantly that you would be coming here to steal my aether disruptor and so I cunningly laid this inescapable trap for you!¡± She stopped talking and preened, actually preened! She half turned away and raised a hand to her chin posing and obviously thinking she looked intelligent and dashing. I thought she looked like a dog waiting for a treat.


    After a few seconds, during which time I suspect her guards were trying not to laugh, I raised a hand with fake meekness. ¡°Is there something wrong with your neck?¡± I asked as innocently as possible.


    The duchess¡¯s head snapped back around and she glared at me and that glare made up for the pathetic posturing. Her eyes were like a snake¡¯s, dead inside and full of... not even hate just an icy dispassionate desire for death.


    ¡°The Arch-Doge will be ever so happy when I present him with your head,¡± she spat, ¡°he might even promote me to the senate, you have been making his guards look very foolish after all,¡± she sighed dreamily. ¡°I will be able to add another wing to my mansion at least.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s all that matters to you isn¡¯t it?¡± I snapped. ¡°What can I get, what can I have, what can he give me, you and your kind are bleeding this city dry to feed your own vanity and that despots lust for power.¡±


    ¡°Stupid fool!¡± she bellowed any pretence of civility gone. ¡°The city only exists to benefit the nobility, we created it and we command it! The commoners only live here so they may serve us!¡±


    ¡°W... The nobles are supposed to serve as an example not a warning they should be the best of the best, those at the bottom should look up with admiration not hate they should aspire not loathe.¡± I retorted, and yes before you ask, all the florid prose I was spouting had a very good reason I just needed her distracted for a few more seconds.


    ¡°Huh an idealist,¡± the duchess stopped moving and stared at me for a few seconds, her features screwed up with the effort of thought. ¡°It will be interesting to find out who you are.¡± She raised a hand and the knights stepped forwards.


    ¡°Who I am doesn¡¯t matter what I do, what I symbolise that''s what matters!¡± Yes again I was hamming it up but I had just seen a flash of colour that told me I wouldn''t need too much longer.


    ¡°You really are naive,¡± she muttered and she brought her arm down, as one the two furnace-knights lumbered forwards their armour screaming as their boilers coughed out vast clouds of smoke. ¡°Soon you will do nothing but rot and symbolise nothing but failure. You were a fool to think you could rob me alone.¡±


    I admit it, I laughed, sometimes life just hands you a perfect moment, so I adopted a suitable swaggering pose and smiled (which was obscured by my mask unfortunately) up at the duchess. ¡°Whoever said I was alone?¡±


    And then the ceiling exploded.

 The Month of Fire - 2

    I leapt backwards out of the way as a cloud of dark shapes billowed inwards through the falling glass. Like swooping living shadows they mobbed around the knights who began to stumble and swat at them with glacial slowness in their heavy armour. As they turned, their swords cutting huge useless lines through the air, a crimson lightning bolt hurtled out of the sky. It shot through the ragged hole in the roof and landed astride the wide pauldron of one staggering knight. Pausing for a moment the lightning bolt becomes a figure who lashes out with both the long blades it holds and spears the knights back mounted power cores with almost contemptuous ease.


    These knights were good, they were the bodyguards of a house head after all, and as such their armour was the latest issue with the latest safety features but I doubt this comforted them. Their joints locked down with a scream of metal on metal as their steam and water tanks vented explosively spewing out of overflow pipes and spattering a nearby bookshelf which began to smoulder (seriously why do we put bookshelves everywhere?)


    The knight¡¯s both  swayed, quivered and then stilled, muted thumping indicated that they were unhappy about this but I think they should just have been grateful that their powered mail had a heat proof internal layer. As I thought that, the figure that had been standing on the knight¡¯s pauldrons jumped down with catlike grace and taped one of the figures gently on his breastplate.


    ¡°Be a good boy and stay there will you?¡± She said in a voice as sweet and sin and as soft as silk.


    Blood Mask strolled around the immobilised knights and nodded companionably at me no doubt beaming beneath her mask. She did so love her grand entrances.


    ¡°Blood.¡± I greeted her fondly as the ravens that had been mobbing the knights came to a rest on their now immobile forms.


    The little hellion turned a pirouette and bowed to me with a dramatic wave of her arm, ¡°Bright.¡± She replied, causing me to reach up self consciously to touch my mask, my bright white quartz mask[19].


    Then I remembered the rat faced harpy who had forced us to go loud. I spun around readying my mace but the ancient crone was already sprinting away at commendable speed for a little shrew wearing about ten thousand Lire of precious metal. Within a dozen heartbeats she was through the vault door[20] which slammed down again behind her, just before it closed I saw her slam a fist onto a large bass button on the opposite wall. All around us alarms suddenly screamed to life sounding like the cries of a herd of burning cows.


    All around us the vault was locking down even as the deafening horns echoed throughout the manor. Huge steel grids slammed down across trophy cases in the gallery whilst thick bars slid across the ticksteel vault door. The (apparently) previously deactivated pressure floor reactivated and the knights tripped it instantly adding yet another alarm to the cacophony which was followed by a staggered slamming. Small previously invisible slots were opening in the walls, in the depths of which I could see something metallic... and sharp. Just barely over the blaring alarms I heard a distant ominous ticking start.


    *Tick* *Tick* *Tick*


    I spun around panicking blindly (as if you wouldn''t under the circumstances!), ¡°the walls have spikes!¡± I screamed. ¡°The walls have spikes!¡±


    Blood turned away from the vault door, apparently unconcerned by the spikes, and headed back towards the everglass display pyramid. With a single spin of her rapier she carved an elaborate figure of eight pattern in the hardened glass, she must have juiced the move with a little bit of magic because the edges left by her rapiers were glowing with heat, the ravens around the room cawed at this display of power with a sound very much like raucous applause.


    I dashed over and reached in gingerly grasping the disruptor whilst being careful not to touch the white hot everglass as it dripped down onto the ground. Luckily (yes luckily) the angle I was forced to bend my arm at was an awkward one and as I grabbed and lifted it from the display cushion it slipped from my sweat slicked grip and began to plummet. My other hand shot out instinctively and grabbed it out of the air and as I did so my fingers closed heavily on a tiny lever.


    *Click*


    There was a second¡¯s breathless anticipation then the end of the disruptor clacked open and a wash of blue light poured out and filled the room.


    The alarms stopped instantly and so did the distant ominous ticking. I really should have felt relieved at that but instead I felt sick... really sick. My head was spinning, my heart was pounding in my ears and my stomach seemed to be filled with acid. At the time I just put it down to delayed shock.


    ¡°Ohhhhh so THAT''S what it does!¡± I murmured as I held the disruptor out in my suddenly weak hands, ¡°now... let¡¯s... just...¡± My numb and shaking fingers knocked the lever again and the light vanished as the bronze shutter slammed back down.


    Instantly I felt much better, the acid in my throat stopped rising and my vision cleared as my heart resumed its normal restful beat. Again at the time I just thought it was because my precious hands weren¡¯t ringed with razor sharp molten glass anymore.


    Looking around and rubbing at my still slightly tingling fingers I saw we were still trapped, the door was still locked, steel grates still obscured the gallery and I was sure I could hear heavy booted feet stomping across fine marble tiles in the middle distance. But worst of all... the ticking had restarted again.


    ¡°How are we going to get out?¡± I squeaked, my voice nearly cracking with nerves. ¡°...could we drag one of the bookcases and put it in front of the spikes? And then... Eppp!¡± My idea was interrupted (probably for the best) by Blood who grabbed me around the waist. I squeaked with a mixture of indignation and surprise as she lifted me off the floor, for someone so tiny she was incredibly strong.


    Blood just chuckled at my shock of course. Then before I could muster any actual words of complaint she got a good grip on my corsets, looked at the ceiling speculatively and... leapt upwards. Any normal person is hard pressed to jump at all carrying another person let alone up a whole story, but Blood hurtled skywards like a bolt from a crossbow. She landed on the edge of the partially shattered glass roof nearly twenty metres above the vault floor trailed by a swirling mass of ravens like a long black cloak.


    I fell out of Blood''s arms (to another damnable chuckle) and desperately tried not to be sick, this was made significantly harder a few seconds later when a dozen metres below me the ticking stopped and... well there were a few less bookcases. Luckily for the knights they were in full body ticksteel powered mail or it would have been rather messy. As it was their immobilised suits were now even more immobilised by hundreds of long steel spikes that now filled nearly the entire room, it was going to take days to get them out.


    I looked away from the sight, having to force my dinner down and turned back to Blood. ¡°Thank you Blood...  so much those knights were so big and you just... thank you.¡±


    Blood laughed at my praise and waved magisterially. ¡°I am perfect you know? It was nothing.¡±


    I nodded absentmindedly trying to identify a strange nagging feeling in my brain then I stood bolt upright and gasped. ¡°Slet[21], we need to get moving, the guards saw where we went, how long until...?¡±


    ¡°Until they get up here and stab us?¡± Interrupted Blood seemingly entirely unconcerned as she coos at a large albino raven now sitting on her shoulder.Stolen novel; please report.


    I looked at her and then the raven which cawed loudly as my crimson companion began to laugh.


    ¡°Hermosa says about two minutes normally,¡± my stomach turned to ice. ¡°But they¡¯re going to be delayed a bit this time.¡±


    ¡°What? Why!¡± I snapped desperately looking around for an escape route. That was when I noticed that many of the ravens now settled happily on the rooftop were holding things in their beaks, small and shiny things.


    ¡°Well... became Hermosa and her flock stole all their keys.¡± Giggled Blood.


    For a second I froze, then I laughed, I laughed and laughed and laughed as stress poured off me like steam off a boiling pot, soon the ravens began to chuckle as well and nothing chuckled like a raven.


    After a few more moments of relieved laughter the hysterical hilarity subsided and I pulled myself together. Taking a few deep calming breaths and wishing I could wipe my eyes I turned to the ledge and nodded at the distant buildings.


    ¡°Ready?¡±


    Blood nodded. ¡°Always.¡± I could hear her smiling under her mask.


    We leapt from the rooftop and there was a moment. A singular perfect moment as the world fell away beneath us and we flew out into the night where I wasn''t the heir to a damn noble house, a scion of privilege, a relied upon elder sister. Just for a moment whilst dashing moon shadow to moon shadow alongside my best friend I finally felt like I was home.


    It didn''t take us long to make it back to our base but it did take us quite some considerable time to actually get inside it.


    I suppose I should describe our little hideaway but from the outside there really isn¡¯t a point. That is in fact the whole point, after all what good would an overt secret lair be?


    Our hideout (we hadn''t bothered coming up with a name) was in a slum district called ¡°beggar¡¯s row¡± owned by House Lyteth. Originally a bright and cheerful district catering to a nearby magical college (technically this was done via printers and paper binders but more often than not it was the taverns and houses of negotiable affection) after the purge destroyed the colleges (and more importantly the students) the workers moved away en masse, without skilled artisans the whole district gradually collapsed and died becoming yet another slum that the nobles only let exist because the poor had to go somewhere. And this was nearly a decade ago! By now it had decayed so badly that only the most desperate, degenerate and dangerous would dare live there.... and us, but hey two out of three ain¡¯t bad.


    It was Blood who had found our hideout itself and she had done so long before I had even thought about putting a mask on. It was nestled in a row of half collapsed houses and looked like any other house there apart from one thing it was, in fact, two houses.


    Only Blood had spotted that and she¡¯d laughed for a good fifteen minutes the first time she brought me here and watched me wander around the stinking ruin poking at walls and complaining about the smell.


    The house had been commissioned either by some overly ambitious land Baron or upwardly mobile scribe back when the district was respectable and was designed to house two families in as small an amount of space as possible and how had they done that? By making one large house and cutting it in half with a thick stone wall. On one side was a dirt and filth encrusted wreck that had been colonised by rats for so long that its carpet now consisted wholly of droppings and on the other side of the wall was a dry, clean silent space without even windows or doors hiding behind the rotten mass of the first building.


    I would never have spotted it but Blood had somehow (And even to this day I''m not sure exactly how) and she dug a tunnel into it from the nearby canal. The entrance was hidden just under the lip of the bank using a few fronds of Lorik weed[22]. You had to hang from the edge like a monkey and really swing your legs to get in and you had to know juuuust where to aim for but after a while it became second nature.


    As for the tunnel... well what do you want me to describe? It was just a tunnel, long, dark and boring. It didn''t go straight into our base of course, even though she acted like she never took anything seriously I found that Blood had a healthy paranoid streak (healthy for a thief at least). Our tunnel twisted and turned two dozen times before it reached our base and it was filled with traps, tricks, false passages, hidden doors and a whole host of other inconveniences to delay, discourage and basically ruin the day of anyone who tried to sneak in.


    However whilst it is highly secure it¡¯s also the reason why it took us nearly half an hour to actually get into our base every time we came home, the stylish life of crime eh?


    Just before we had entered the warren of tunnels Blood had bid goodnight to Hermosa and her flock. They had cawed what I had been assured was a polite goodbye and compliment of my dress sense at me and vanished up towards the roof and their makeshift aerie that we had installed there. I wasn¡¯t very pleased with it but Blood said they liked it a lot more than sleeping out in the open even if it suffered from mild subsidence and all¡¯s well that ends well right?


    But as it was they were probably all nice and warm and more than likely asleep by the time we even managed to drag our exhausted bodies out of the hole in our base''s floor. Thanks to our many and lucrative thefts our hideout was far better decorated than the decoy house (with its stylish collection of rat droppings) but it was not improved by the arrival of two sweaty mages with muddy boots.


    I crawled to my feet and half collapsed against a wall within seconds the white and gold striped wallpaper had blurred slightly as the damp from my cape seeped into it.


    Blood of course didn''t look like she¡¯d even noticed the run or been perturbed by clambering through a trap filled sewer. She crawled out of the hole, did a reverse somersault onto her feet and strode away towards her room with every sign of enjoyment only stopping to pat me gently on the back.


    ¡°I¡¯ll... fine... See... Later¡± I managed to gasp as a whole evening''s worth of fighting, running and worrying finally caught up with me. The little hellion simply nodded with what I was sure was a smile on her invisible face and wandered off glancing at her cabinet as she went past.


    Ah yes I should describe that. Give me a moment though will you? You need the full description of our little hidey-hole as it very soon became the centre of my world.


    To start with our hideout was massive, consisting of twenty large rooms arrayed into two levels around a central space. We used two of the side rooms as bedrooms with a third being an armoury of sorts, a fourth a small kitchen and a fifth being ¡°The strategic centre¡± as Blood called it (really it was entirely unnecessary since it was just a table with a few maps and plans in a box on it; all of which could have easily fit anywhere else in the house but oh well). To be honest we mostly lived in the central room (which I think used to be a landing) it had a large fireplace, a number of trophy cabinets where we kept our loot and an even larger number of overstuffed armchairs that were being sorely missed in noble smoking rooms all across the city.


    The entire house smelled... odd. Not bad if that''s what you¡¯re thinking but it smelled like a sealed up room. Faint notes of lacquer and sawdust drifted through the air accompanied by a slight tang of mildew and the scent of stillness which you could taste on your tongue. The atmosphere of the place was always cold as we arrived, like old stone radiating chill into your bones, but it always seemed to warm nearly instantly as if the house enjoyed finally having inhabitants[23].


    Now finally the most interesting bit, our trophy cases.


    They sat in our large central living room, three along the left wall for me and six along the right for Blood, finally in-between them was a large pentagonal case where we put things that we had both stolen together. We took any money or jewels we found obviously (and tended to give some nearby peasants some very happy Kothmas days) but this was where we kept the things we couldn''t bear to part with (generally either by chucking them in the sea or later when we gained a few new friends by selling them), some were just too useful to part with like the harmonic intercept box and after tonight the aether disruptor. Some because they were far too well known or were still being actively hunted for (the egg of Baron Fairbanks for instance) and the majority were there because we liked to show off to one another and needed evidence to back up our heist stories. Or as Blood had once put it ¡°Loot or it didn''t happen¡±.


    As I walked through our trophy room I lifted the lid of our joint storage case and dropped the Disruptor in, looking around I smiled at the pleasant memories the room invoked. I saw the Fairbanks egg sat on a pedestal in my case and a Deroth pendant forged from moon silver next to it, I even had a trans-logical equation punch card made from solid gold and stolen from a sub-cloister of the Church of the Divine Mechanisms itself. All in all I was very happy with my various hauls but they paled in comparison to Bloods. She had actually been forced to leave the top off her trophy case just to fit them all in! But that is to be expected after all, she had been doing this for 4 eons and I for only 12 cycles but I think I had some pretty decent cabinets all the same.


    After a moment more lost in pleasant recollection I gritted my teeth and pushed off from the cabinet, stumbled across the room and lurched up the stairs. With an effort of will I pushed all my remaining energy into my battered legs, crashed through my door and half fell into the room beyond landing heavily on my bed. Its fluffiness defeated any attempts at a struggle and I (lying sideways with my shins still on the floor I will point out) fell soundly asleep.


    I didn''t dream I don''t tend to, I just closed my eyes peacefully... and then slammed them open growling under my breath as the Fairbanks egg chimed, trilled and sang the hour in.

 The Month of Fire - 3

    Sitting up on my bed I groaned loudly, looking back I think about forty minutes had passed but it felt like less than five since my head hit the bed. I paused for a moment to listen to the eggs jaunty tune, determined that it was 11 o¡¯clock, sighed and stood up. Pausing groggily next to my bed I shook my head violently to try to force my brain to wake up properly then bounced on the balls of my feet for a moment to stretch my legs out (accompanied by an internal cacophony of twanging ligaments and complaining muscles). Walking over to my armoire I slapped the door open with a tired gesture and quickly pulled off my cloak and boots, stowing them in the dirty section to be cleaned later. Then I stripped out of the rest of my grey and white thieves outfit, the soft suit with its half skirt was creased and sweat stained after the long night¡¯s running so I dropped it into the dirty section as well. Then for the first time since entering our hideout I looked down. I had been doing all this with only one hand as the other was still clutching my grapple mace so tightly that my white leather gloves were deforming around the knuckles. I flexed my fingers open with a cartilaginous creak and then winced at the harsh thud of the weapon hitting into the floor. Shaking my head I found my hand instinctively reaching up to remove my mask like I might have done at home but I stopped the motion just in time.


    Rolling my tense shoulders I grabbed my favourite simple dress from the cupboard, a light sky blue number decorated with Jute lacework and some small silver flowers on the hem. Flattening it as best I could I quickly slid it on over my laced up underclothes, smock, corset and frock.


    What? Look, I may spend my nights running around the city stealing from nobles but I was still a lady and a lady must maintain proper standards of dress at all times and that means seven layers minimum, five when in bed... maybe four if it¡¯s a very hot summer. No less!


    Now you might have expected us to wander around maskless when it was only the two of us but we had an agreement, no knowledge of one another¡¯s identities, no faces, no names. Even our skin colour might give us away so no visible skin. We had however both drawn the line at hair. Mine got tangled into painful knots under any sort of cap or hood and I assumed Bloods was the same since she always let her black waterfall of perfect curls lie down the back of her cloak and across her shoulders, seriously I was so jealous of that mane of hair, so thick and smooth. You know she never even has to brush it? NEVER! It¡¯s so unfair... but I am really getting sidetracked now.


    Anyway once I finished redressing into my casual outfit I left my room. I didn''t bother shutting the door; there were only two of us in this house after all and I was going to check on the other one.


    It was easy to recognise Blood''s room. It was down one of the small corridors on the second level, just off the balcony around the communal area. The corridor didn''t have any wallpaper anymore (or carpet... or ceiling beams) and had been burned so badly and so often that it looked like it had been painted black (when I had asked her about this, Blood''s only reply was ¡°Practice¡±).


    I knocked on the partially charcoal-ified[24] door and heard a faint metallic noise stop. ¡°Come in Bright.¡±


    I opened the door and nodded at the girl on the bed. ¡°How did you know it was me?¡± I joked.


    Blood laughed quietly at that same adorable silken chuckle I¡¯ve always loved. ¡°Your perfume.¡±


    She was sharpening her blades which she did nearly obsessively after every battle. Even as we spoke her hands never stopped moving, running a slice of sharpening stone up and down on the very edge of her sword, causing a faint and somehow silvery scraping sound like the ticking of some strange clock. I had offered to buy her a steel bar for sharpening soon after I moved into the base but she said she preferred the edge that stone left.


    ¡°That was... really well done.¡± I started looking around for somewhere to sit down. Unlike my sparse room Bloods was packed with stolen furniture every single bit of which was red. A huge double bed with crimson silk sheets, a copper chandelier (hanging slightly too low in the tiny room), a life sized mannequin for her outfit and a whole rack of swords, blades, knives and daggers none of which I had ever seen her use. ¡°Stopping the knights like that I mean... I just want to say thank you again. I wouldn''t have stood a chance alone.¡±


    Blood tilted her head at me; a piece of body language we had wordlessly invented to project a smile through a mask. ¡°It''s never a problem to help you Bright. Besides I couldn''t have memorised the manors blueprints in a single sitting, it''s a pity that the old harpy found you out but sometimes luck isn¡¯t on our side.¡±


    ¡°How did that happen anyway?¡± I asked, giving up and slumping onto the bed next to Blood, the younger girl (I am pretty certain) looked around at me sighed indulgently and dropped her sword and stone onto the floor.


    ¡°The old hag said how, didn''t she? They saw you busted into that stuffy architect''s office and nicked her house''s blueprints. It doesn''t take a genius to figure out where you¡¯re going to rob.¡±


    ¡°But how did she know the night?¡± I asked distractedly. I was going to have to work on my burglary skills apparently.


    ¡°Probably didn¡¯t,¡± said Blood leaning back against the wall and waving a hand. ¡°She was probably waiting there every night for the last two cycles just in case you turned up, nobles have a lot of spare time.¡±


    I found myself giggling at the image of a haughty noble woman and her hulking guardsmen standing in a shadowed cold corridor for hours just staring at a locked door.


    ¡°Any idea how they snuck up on me?¡±


    ¡°Not a clue!¡± replies Blood cheerfully. ¡°I guess you¡¯re just an idiot.¡±


    ¡°But I mean their armour is so loud they had steam-generators on their backs and everything...¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Ah in that case I can think of only one thing...,¡± started Blood with theatrical pomposity and gravitas. ¡°...You¡¯re a deaf idiot.¡±


    I giggled again and threw a pillow at her which Blood caught out of the air and hurled back even as I grabbed another. We then proceeded to dance around her room hurling items of clothing and bed linen at one another for a good five minutes before I got tired and surrendered.


    ¡°I''m starving Blood,¡± I said, stifling a yawn. ¡°Let¡¯s get something to eat.¡±


    ¡°Good idea.¡± She replied and we walked towards the kitchen which turned into a run which turned into a race I won (Blood has short legs)[25]. The building whatever it was supposed to be hadn''t been equipped with a kitchen as standard which was quite strange. In response we had simply smashed the door off one of the rooms on the lower level and fitted a rather crude, stuck an ice box in one corner and an oven onto the tile floor. We¡¯d even set up a rainwater syphon from the roof down to a tap. These devices are relatively common around the slum districts (it was that or drink sea water, an unappealing prospect for anyone not of Ladorian blood although this advantage tended to pale in comparison to all of the other problems they faced in Prasus) and mechanical engineering skills was necessity for the young upwardly mobile noble women at least since the Arch-Doge took over[26], how else do you think I made my grapple-mace?


    We spilled into our kitchen giggling like a couple of children. I dashed over to the cold box, lifted the lid and then squeaked in disapproval as the much shorter (and I insist younger) Blood lifted me bodily without apparent effort, spun me around and placed me back on the floor away from the box.


    ¡°Stay.¡± She said condescendingly as she grabbed a cold cut herself, I snorted and reached over her much lower shoulder to grab one myself, then we sat down at the table and simply... were. It''s hard to explain to a non-noble (and any noble reading this knows exactly what I mean) but when you¡¯re a noble you¡¯re just a function of a bigger system you know? When people look at you they don''t see you they see your alliances, policies, parents and bloodline. They may see the heir or the pretender but they never see you.


    When I¡¯m with Blood I am who I am and nothing else. Forgive me if that¡¯s overly verbose and not particularly amusing but it¡¯s important that you understand why this time means so much to me and why she means so much to me.


    It¡¯s not like we did anything important though I will admit, we just sat and chatted eating our terribly unhealthy meal of late night bread and meat. Talking about anything and everything that crosses our minds... but no names, that was the rule and we never broke it.


    ¡°You know I told you about our new tutor?¡± I asked her more as a framing device than a question. ¡°He''s got me doing hundreds of repetitions of our pointless motto and when I complained he set me a hundred more can you believe that? And of course my sister just sat there smirking and my brother was too busy staring out the window to even notice. It was infuriating!¡±


    I sighed then raised my sandwich to my mouth. We had both perfected a sort of flick using our fingertips to lift the chin of our masks up as we leant forwards so we could stick food and drink in our mouths whilst keeping our masks on, not very comfortable and quite embarrassing but you get used to it after a while. ¡°It''s exhausting being the one everyone else relies on! My father sets me more lessons every day and my stupid sister just gets to go to balls and parties instead. I mean sure they¡¯d be even more boring to me but at least I¡¯d be outside!¡±


    ¡°Parents are always a problem.¡± Said Blood with forced joviality, I bit my lip and blushed invisibly under my mask, how could I ever have forgotten? Blood had a terrible relationship with her parents (she hardly ever mentioned them but that in itself was enough to tip me off. The few times she had... well it wasn''t nice) and here I was complaining about nothing.


    ¡°Sorry Blood I shouldn''t be moaning at you...¡±


    Blood reached across the table and took my hand, ¡°I''m your friend Bright, being moaned at is one of my jobs, the other is to be brutally critical of your dress sense,¡± she paused dramatically for a second and over exaggeratedly looked me up and down. ¡°...Which is pretty awful if I''m being honest.¡±


    I laughed loudly at that as the melancholy in the air vanished instantly. Blood always knows how to lighten the mood, she sees the whole world as one big wonderful joke and when you¡¯re with her you can''t stop yourself from enjoying the punch line.


    We talked for hours and hours in our warm little kitchen about anything that crossed our minds. The problems with our families, the best parts of our previous heists, anywhere new we planned to explore or rob, our fighting styles, gadgets and devices. Hours we sat there just chatting and revelling in the comfortable feeling of being truly at home.


    And then reality kicked us in the ribs.


    Out past the empty door frame, in our trophy room, the egg began to ring at 1 o¡¯clock. It did this rather more elaborate than a normal clock so rather than chime it played a brief piece of music ending in chimes worked artfully into the song (it was meant to impress the Arch-Doge after all), supposedly it would never repeat a song[27]. I flinched and slammed my hands into the table as I heard the machines muffled strains of Once a fine morning in Wilt I espied a burning heretic begin to float into the room.


    ¡°Damn!¡±


    ¡°Damn!¡± Echoed Blood and we both leapt to our feet; me dropping my second and Blood dropping her fifth portion of cold meat onto the table. We shot out of the door (well door frame) and raced around the house in panting silence, grabbing books, cloaks and other tokens of our maskless lives from their various resting places (I don''t know where Blood kept all her stuff just that it seemed to require an inordinate amount of cursing to get it back).


    Assembling my bundle I walked back into the trophy room and stood next to an incongruous wardrobe which was leaning against the back wall. This was my exit from the house, since obviously we didn''t leave the same way we entered, or even the same way the other did.


    I mean I trusted Blood with my life. By the Abyss I loved her like a sister already (in point of fact I loved her quite a bit more than my real blood sister who I rarely found I had time for thanks to her vapid focus on popularity). But we were fighting a group of notoriously unmerciful people literally called Inquisitors. We never spelled it out but the less each of us knew about the other the better.


    With that gloomy thought in mind I turned to Blood who stood on the second floor gallery. She bowed with a florid wave and turning on her heel vanished into one of the empty rooms. I pried open the cupboard and slipped down the ladder within landing in a different yet equally dirty tunnel below our base. A minutes running and a minutes climbing and nother minutes fumbling later left me standing on the night time streets of Prasus again whilst behind me a pavement slab sunk slowly back into its socket again.


    Dashing away into the night; rushing to beat the sun I nevertheless stopped and turned back one last time to gaze at our hideout. To this day I still say I saw a flash of red amidst the chimneys. Then I sighed and turned away from my best friend and began to trudge back towards my gloomy manor with its scurrying servants and snide sycophants.


    Now dear reader my account temporarily ends and I hand you over to Blood for a comprehensive look at her journey home. I can only apologise in advance for the number of exclamation marks she uses.

 An Especially Awesome Time

    THAT''S RIGHT LADIES AND GENTS!!!!!!!!! Come one come all!! Step right up and gaze in awe!! Astonishing thrills! Heart stopping chills! And lots and lots of me!


    I can tell you understand your good fortune so get ready to bask in the glory of my presence as I tell you about myself, my journey home and how amazing corvids are.


    So there I was standing on the roof of our little hideout watching Bright vanish into the distance. It always made me a little sad when she left but she had her duties and I had mine back in my cold horrible house.


    But oh well! Life is pretty awesome when you get right down to it and if it seems bad at the moment that just means something nice is around the corner.


    As I thought that I casually stepped off the rooftop, landing with a hollow boom on the pavement below. Pausing for a moment I mentally plotted the best way home, checked a few street names and then with a nod and a wave dashed off into the night.


    I moved so fast that I have no doubt I left a blur behind me. I moved with the speed of a lightning bolt and the grace of a ballerina running the length of the street in like ten seconds then spinning into the next one using a gas globe post as a pivot. I hoped I hadn''t left a handprint in the metal again but I couldn''t be bothered to stop and check... and yes I am that strong and fast and awesome.


    But even when I ran all out it didn''t take much effort for Hermosa to catch up with me. I may be very fast but she can go as fast... as the crow flies! Yes I am a famous wit as well as an amazing fighter I''m glad you noticed.


    As I was saying Hermosa swooped out of the sky next to me and hovered at about head height; skimming along with barely a motion of her wings.


    ¡°She''s away safely. My flock will shadow her till the bridge then drop back so they don''t see where she¡¯s going as per usual.¡±[28]


    ¡°Thanks Hermosa,¡± I said, ducking into an alley and sliding under a wedged cart. ¡°I hope it''s not too much of a bother.¡±


    ¡°Of course not,¡± replies Hermosa, slowing her flight slightly and zigzagging along after me. ¡°I know you worry about her... as much as you ever worry about anything.¡±


    ¡°Yeah I do,¡± I replied, reaching a canal and skidding to a halt. ¡°She wasn¡¯t very good at thinking stealthy at the beginning... Hey Hermosa, would you help me over this?¡±


    Hermosa nodded her tiny white head and suddenly her flock exploded out of the sky like a black riptide. I spun and leapt towards the narrow strip of water, most people would be scared leaping into thin air above the depthless and savage waters of Prasus but I had no fear for I knew I was perfect... and I had done this before, like, a lot.


    I soared into the air launching myself across the canal, flying through the air like a raven myself but still slowing bit by bit. I was nearly half way across when I felt my momentum run out and I began to fall in earnest but then... from all around me appeared the flock. A cloud of cawing ravens descended upon me and as I fell one of them shot under my boot. They couldn''t support me for more than a moment of course even with how light I am but that''s all the time someone as perfect as me needs. I pushed off the raven and leapt forwards and again a black feathered body was suddenly under my foot, again and again I leapt and again and again just like the ravens taught me so that I was running through a tunnel of black feathers. Then I was out of the flock and falling to the ground on the opposite side of the canal.


    ¡°Thank you all!¡± I called over my shoulder as I continued running I didn''t have much time now.


    ¡°Welcome...¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re Welcome...¡±


    ¡°Welcome...¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re...¡±


    ¡°Welcome...¡±


    ¡°...Welcome...¡±


    I have always found the whole flock talking at once to be cute.


    Waving goodbye I hurtled up the last avenue and arrived panting outside my front door. Three miles ran in two and a half minutes, not too shabby.


    I dashed along the outside of the vast but decrepit manor house. Leaping the half collapsed fence and dodging the rotting trees[29]. Grabbing the trunk of the largest such crumbling giant I scrambled up and into its branches and from there I stepped onto a second story window sill. Stood on the ledge concealed by the predawn murk I quickly removed my crimson costume revealing my normal formal black clothing underneath. A true lady always dresses in layers just like Bright said. Then I reached up, pulled my mask off, jimmied the window open, ducking in and... Thud!Stolen novel; please report.


    ¡°Slet.¡± I cursed, rubbing my forehead as pain shot down through my horns. ¡°Whose foolish idea was it to use iron for a crossbeam? That really hurt¡±.


    Recovering from my slight misjudgement I slipped with (ha-ha) inhuman grace into the room beyond landing neatly on my bed. A moment later and my bundle of clothes and weapons hung from its accustomed peg outside under my window sill where a gargoyle hides it neatly from view. Then with my jobs done I slid silently under my covers.


    Seconds later I heard footsteps in the corridor outside my room. I closed my eyes and laid back the very picture of innocent slumber I assure you.


    My door creaked open and I heard the footsteps enter. One of my long pointed ears flicked ever so slightly as the door groaned shut again but my acting is, of course, perfect. I was as still as a grave full of gravestones that had been gravely wounded... My analogies, as well, are perfect.


    ¡°Ah Lady Lyteth you have returned to us in one piece I see,¡± I growled softly to myself and sat up in bed looking across at Gideon Crowforth my manservant. He placed the lamp he was holding gently on my bedside table and bowed deeply, flicking his long black tailcoat out as he did so, ¡°And from the burn marks on your sheets it seems you came the worse for wear out of yet another fight. If the young mistress intends to get injured again tomorrow I will require an hour off in the morning to acquire more reinforced bandages.¡±


    Gideon is one of the only... Memories? Relics? Things my mother left me before she left. I don''t like to talk about it even to Bright and I''m certainly not getting into it with you lot. Suffice to say he''s like 200[30] eons old and knows more about Shaitan¡¯s than anybody I¡¯ve ever met (although considering most think my mother¡¯s race is a myth that''s not actually hard). Me being half-human does mean he''s wrong sometimes but not often.


    Gideon reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a roll of the flexible woven metal bandages that he always carries. My blood is super acidic so normal cloth or cotton bandages just burn away from my wounds in seconds (as a few of the briefer butlers and babysitters that were assigned to supplement Gideon over the eons have learned to their horror). And yes I had gotten a shallow cut from taking down the furnace-knights. I didn''t mention it to Bright of course since I don''t like her worrying about me but a shattered bit of a pressure release valve had cut me across the back of the hand and the wound was currently busy burning through my bedclothes (like it had done to my glove a few hours ago, luckily my clothes are the same shade of red as my skin so Bright never noticed). It had staunched itself already obviously in the hours since it was inflicted but the scab had broken when I opened the window.


    ¡°Bugger!¡± I shouted as I noticed the spreading acid for the first time. I leapt out of bed and ran over to the sink letting the bright red acid in my veins spill across the enamel which it promptly started to dissolve. As it did so the room was filled with the scent of syrup and lemon which was what my blood (rather unaccountably) smells like. ¡°Hurry hurry!¡± I snapped waving frantically at him.


    ¡°Yes mistress.¡± Said Gideon his voice slow, smooth, cultured and distinctly put upon. He always sounded like that whether I was asking for extra scones or fencing lessons (one of the skills he displayed from his time working for my mother was a baffling and nearly inhuman ability with a blade and as a half-human myself trust me when I say I know what I''m talking about there).


    Gideon was extremely deft and very careful with the bandages since my blood can melt human skin about as quickly as it burned through anything other than metal. Well one kind of metal at least, all the others still burn given time.


    ¡°I shall visit the silversmiths again tomorrow,¡± murmured Gideon smoothly. ¡°Unless the young mistress intends to give up her adventuring and start taking her studies more seriously?¡±


    I just stared at him, golden eyes wide with disbelief. He shook his head and bent back to his task with a sigh. ¡°I suppose it was foolish of me to ask ma¡¯am.¡±


    ¡°We got an aether disruptor today,¡± I said after a few more seconds¡¯ silence. ¡°And I took down a couple of furnace-knights.¡±


    ¡°An aether disruptor like the one that Duchess Ashford so recently showed your father?¡± Gideon¡¯s voice didn''t lose its put upon tone but it became slightly softer around the edges.


    I looked away from him, ¡°Well of course, how else would I find out about fun things to steal?¡± The candlelight struck lines off my crimson skin which helpfully served to mask the beginnings of a blush (which for me turns my skin black, I don''t even understand the science of how that works but there we go).


    ¡°I understand lord Lyteth had invested a significant amount of capital in its invention, I think he intended its patent to revitalise the house....¡±


    I pulled my hand free and walked back over to my bed. ¡°Thank you Gideon that will be all.¡±


    I heard him pause behind me then his coat crinkled as he bowed. ¡°Yes young mistress.¡± He said his voice was kind and sad in equal measure. Seconds later the door creaked as it swung open and then groaned as it closed behind him.


    As his soft footsteps faded away into the distance I paced back and forth in my room. ¡°How dare he?¡± I muttered feeling roiling venom rising in my throat[31] ¡°HOW DARE HE!¡± Stomping to a halt I lashed my tail out from under my skirts and buried its long black barbs into the bedpost next to me (which shortly began to smoulder).


    ¡°HOW DOES HE THINK HE CAN SAY THAT?¡± My heart burning with anger I raised my hand, my claws shot out with a velvety snapping sound and I... stopped moving... then sighed deeply.


    A childish tantrum will do me no good I thought as I pulled my tail free from the bedpost and sheathed my claws.


    Sighing again I looked around at the dingy room in the hateful house then my eyes fell on the lamp Gideon had left and, almost despite myself, I smiled. It was a long taper lantern which would burn all night.


    Ruefully shaking my head I clambered back into my bed smoothing the quilt down on top of myself. ¡°Old man¡¯s good for something I guess.¡± I muttered to myself burying my face in my pillow and falling soundly asleep.

 The Month of Fire 4

    In a dim room atop a tall stone tower the light of the sun squeezes in a half covered window around a pair of dusty drapes. Out there, beyond the glass, it fuelled Prasus on the docks merchants sweated under it, in the manufactories smiths held their crafts up to it, in a thousand homes it was welcomed and here in this old room it seemed to catch the dust that spun in the air and make it dance like golden sand.


    Or that''s what I thought as I stared at the window in our school room with the obsessive interest of someone bored out of their mind. At the head of the room Terrance Choir my tutor was droning on about the history of Atylia[32] again. Once I had found its ancient empires and bloody coups as exciting an escape as any from my obligations but it pales in comparison to rooftop sword fights and magical daring do.


    ¡°...The so-called Dark Empire[33] was the earliest and to this day the largest empire in the history of our world.¡± His voice was old nasal and pedantic. It was a voice designed to whine and complain with.


    I remember another voice so alike to it belonging to a squeaking little duke. He screamed about the unfairness as we raided his mansion. He stood on the roof far above us and whined and roared and moaned and wept as we cut down his guards, broke open his vaults and stole his precious treasure. His howls of rage sang out after us as we dashed away across the rooftop like our own personal victory hymn.


    ¡°The Dark Empire was the largest military power ever recorded in history with literally millions of men under arms at any one time, it had real exports, no trade, not even any significant capacity for the manufacturing of items instead it used its unparalleled military might to tax all the other nations of the world in exchange for a stay of its attentions. Those that refused or that had particularly valuable resources were invaded and annexed in short order increasing its power further each time.¡±


    He paused and looked at the three seated students before him, pushing his string grey hair from his eyes with one hand and rubbing the front of his robe down flat with the other. ¡°I am sure you are asking how is this possible, how could one single empire cause such terror as to hold the entire world hostage? The answer was blasphemous magic...¡±


    Even though we both had magic neither of us liked to use it, if even a rumour slipped out that we were mages the entire city noble and peasant alike would unite in its hatred of us, hound us down, beat us to a pulp and hand us over to the Inquisition. But sometimes we had no other choice. We were fighting a huge copper golem with fists like hammers. Our weapons were useless as we darted around it like mosquitoes and then; there was a patch of oil. I remember slipping, the golems shadow falling across me, I saw its hand upraised to crush me and then... light. Cast by a whip of liquid flame that sprang from Blood''s hand and blew the golem away from me. Its cogs melted, its boiler burst, in seconds it was reduced from a lethal automaton to a puddle of molten brass. Blasphemous magic indeed, I have never seen anything as beautiful as Bloods magic.


    ¡°...Some historians have even gone so far as to claim that the Empire was a human civilization only in name,¡± here he stopped and sycophantically winked at us, ¡°as if any other species has the mental capacity to create such a force. Regardless these few unaccredited scholars claim it was in actuality ruled from behind the scenes by members of the Shaitan race, beings of vast magical and physical power,¡± at this he paused and nodded as if agreeing heartily with his own rhetoric (nobody else was going to), ¡°however no evidence of this puppet rule has ever been found nor I will add has it ever been proved that the Shaitan species really exist,¡± taking a deep breath he pointed at a huge towering pile of half read books sat on his desk. ¡°It is the considered opinion of current age scholar such as myself that the vile mages ruling over the land were so utterly corrupted in soul by magic that their flesh had warped in sympathy causing their original forms and even species to be lost and perverted and leading to them being called the Shaitan.¡±


    I sighed inwardly at that. I was bright enough to recognise a lead in question when I heard it and to not give him the satisfaction of playing along but the rest of my family not so much.


    On queue I heard my brother Roland pipe up. ¡°But sir why would that...?¡±


    ¡°Excellent question young master Roland,¡± exploded Terrance, his dry cold voice livened up by a chance to bore again, ¡°the word actually has an extremely interesting origin. Shaitan entered our tongue from an ancient Carlijian dialect and is in fact a bastardization...¡± At this point he paused and glared at us, daring one of us to crack a smile. ¡°...originally it was two separate words Shattia Anan which were combined together into Shaitan by our ancestors, the original meaning however was kept unchanged Shattia Anan literally means beings of corruption.¡±


    As he said these last three words he wrote them painstakingly on the blackboard. Then he paused and waved a hand dismissively at us. ¡°Some claim the translation is truly champions of change or however these are assertions made by foreign scholars who have not passed the rigorous examination and accreditation process that the Arch-Doge demands for those of us who wish to publish within Prasus. The Arch-Doge set these standards personally in order to ensure the correct education of the younger generation, that is to say, you.¡±This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    The Arch-Doge was the reason we ran, the reason for all our pain and fear. The people loved him, the Order nearly worshipped him, the nobles followed him like loyal dogs and the Tribunal answered to him and him alone. He had so much power but we liked to prove he wasn''t all powerful. We found out about a banquet he was holding for the elite of the elite, his personal yes-men and toddies. The centrepiece was a cask of two thousand eon old sextuple X grade fire berry brandy, we found the shipping company that had delivered it, we found their private warehouse and we emptied the cask down a drain then refilled it with sea water and red dye I wish my father had taken me, I would have loved to see the noble¡¯s faces as they tried to praise a glass of salt water and ink.


    ¡°At its height the Dark Empire spanned nearly the entire known world. They possessed vast power of all kinds from the military to monetary; they had unbeatable armies, incomparable raw resources, endless vaults of treasure and obviously the most territory of any nation or people. But all of this bounty was tainted by the corrupting influence of magic and so it fell. Corruption is the fate of all who would meddle with magic.¡±


    Corrupt? That''s what they¡¯ve always used as an excuse. Magic is corrupt, magic is evil, but using my magic has never hurt me, never changed who I am. It does hurt Blood though. Once we had to fight our way out of a private bank in the heart of a noble quarter, all the way from the vault to the foyer. In the end she got us out, she blew an unobserved wall apart with a barrage of fireballs. But her magic uses her blood, the actual blood in her veins, as a catalyst... as fuel. I didn''t understand that at first but any use of her power hurts her the more she uses the worse the damage, She was unconscious afterwards. I carried her back to the hideout in my arms, she¡¯s so light iIt was scary, like carrying a child or a ghost.


    The old man coughs a dry hacking cough into his balled fist as the faint breath of wind stirs the dust in the room. As he does so he grabs a sheaf of papers off the table with his free arm and waves it expansively. ¡°My theory, currently under examination by the truth of the past examination board, postulates that their reliance on magic led to the mysterious collapse of their vast empire. At its height it spanned fully three quarters of the world with one hundred million men under arms and yet it vanished from mind and memory in less than a day.¡±


    I barely wake up for the day anymore, I can¡¯t explain why but it''s only during the night when the sisters rise high, when I¡¯m with Blood, when my magic sings in my veins, that when I wake up. That¡¯s when I feel alive.


    Roland took the bait again. ¡°A whole empire? That can''t be right sir can it? They can''t have just... gone?¡±


    The ancient tutor coughs and hacks for a second with glee before nodding, ¡°you are right my boy you are right... if it was an empire of technology but theirs was tainted by magic,¡± even as I watched agitation was colouring his pale dead skin and giving it the hue of life again, ¡°they were primitives, savages, they didn''t even understand the wheel! All their war machines, their sculptures, their paintings, their weapons... even their sewage system! All of it was forged by and from magic and magic alone, no Koth blessed metal or purifying steam, eventually their reliance on the abominable caught up with them and ground their empire to dust,¡± he frowned. ¡°I... we believe... that is...¡±


    He paused and looked around at us then sighed and ran a hand through his hair distractedly. ¡°You must understand that this was tens of thousands of eons ago, no direct evidence exists of the actual causes of their civilizations collapse. In fact all we have are the accounts of their neighbours, slaves and enemies who arrived to trade, serve or war one day and found the entire empire, from its buildings to its citizenry, just... gone.¡±


    As the old man droned on I slumped down in my chair and yawned widely, my mind lost in reveries of the past. Suddenly a huge book slammed down onto the table in front of me with a deafening boom. I jumped backwards with a loud gasp and looked up at the now grinning face of Terrance.


    ¡°Well mistress Dutair it seems we are boring you, I must apologise,¡± he sneered. ¡°If you are so sleepy I shall accelerate the lesson. Name me all of the sisters of the sun please.¡±


    I scrambled inside my head for an answer as under the table my left hand unwound from my boot knife. I wasn¡¯t the best student during the day or night but Blood was a surprisingly good teacher, far better than this old crone. ¡°Uhhhhhh... well...,¡± I knew this question was far too easy but I still couldn''t see the trap in it, ¡°Lato, Laria and Lanan.... uhmmmm...¡± I trailed off and looked up at him with mute defiance.


    He sniffed loudly and sneered. ¡°Well that is indeed the most common three however, if you had bothered to do the reading I assigned you last cycle, you would remember the name of the fourth sister; the red pariah who rises only once a decade Sanguina.¡±


    I looked down at my desk and muttered something noncommittal. He grunted with evil amusement and pointed at the new book on my desk. ¡°Please read and memorise this by next Wednesday Mistress Dutair, classical astronomy is important.¡±


    Behind me I heard Roland giggle and felt Allegra¡¯s grin on my skin.... it''s a twin thing.


    Turning back to his board Terrance began to mutter and mumble again droning on and on about the red sister. I just sighed and stared out of the half covered window at the distant rooftops dreaming of running free Blood beside me, ravens behind me and my mace in hand.

 The Month of Wilt - 1

    In the heart of Prasus there is a mansion ancient baroque and large enough to house a thousand, from atop that mansion protrudes a tower growing like an ancient marble tree, at the very peak of the tower sits a room wide dark and airy and in that room, there is a desk.


    It is a good desk, strong and stable and carved from wood that is nearly black with age and varnish, proper hardwood too brought in from the forests of Atylia, none of that cheap Earln wood that you can just fish out of the sea. Worth more than a trade galleon all on its own it had suffered much during its centuries of service and it was covered in scrapes, scratches and cup shaped stains. One of the legs had been nailed back on and the varnish on one corner had bubbled when a candle had fallen over but all in all it was a very good desk.


    However all of this, from the beauty to the battle scarring, was rather hard to notice because it was buried under a veritable snow drift of paperwork of every kind imaginable. There were rolls of scrawled scrolls, piles of loose letters, a small mountain range formed from the spines of heavy leather bound books, deep drifts of ripped envelopes and loose leaf pages, reams of papyrus covered in foreign pictograms and what looked like an entire reel of golem behaviour punch cards with a large note attached that read ¡°Property of the Church of the Divine Mechanisms - DO - NOT - TOUCH¡±.


    All in all the desk looks like it¡¯s been caught in the middle of a bibliographic blizzard, however this doesn¡¯t seem to bother the room¡¯s single occupant. She sits now at the desk on a plush leather wingback chair. What can I say about her? She is beautiful and poised, her every action smooth and refined. Her hair falls just so, her large round eyes are filled with the light of intelligence. Her lips are ever ready to smile and her skin is like fairest marble. All in all she is the very picture of a Prasian noblewoman. She sits comfortably in her office enjoying the aroma of a cup of perfectly brewed tea that steamed on her desk, reaching out she... I lifted the cup to my lips and took a long drink whilst scanning the page I held in my other hand, my magisterial expression never once wavering (I¡¯d have gone with haughty or catty myself)[34].


    The same old boring information flooded into my tower day after day. My little rats across the city were happily chattering to me but mostly it was idle squeaking, nothing actionable. A lordling with an interesting vice here, a young lady in common company there and of course noble houses plotting just about everywhere. It was enough to keep me ticking over, like an idling war golem, but nothing that I needed to act on, nothing to excite me. Being the Intelligencer of a noble family was an honourable role and rather more importantly one that gives you nearly limitless power and responsibility. As the shadowed fist of the dynasty you are what the other houses fear.... but to be honest it''s mostly just waiting for other people to start running the rat race then betting when you know the winner. Sometimes you have to ensure a winner with cheese, or poison, both serve when used correctly.


    As you can tell I was in an introspective mood, bored and oddly fatigued by the lack of anything fatiguing to do when fate in general, and more specifically a family servant, knocked on my door. I looked up immediately with a hungry cast to my eyes, now someone knocking on my door wasn¡¯t strange by any means. Twenty odd people had been in and out of my tower in the last hour alone! No it was the knock itself that dragged my attention, it was quiet and irregular, stuttering almost, it was the knock of someone who secretly wishes that they wouldn''t be heard.


    I strode across the room and flung the door open one handed. The man beyond confirmed my suspicions by jumping backwards and cowering away from me.


    ¡°M... Lady Lanin... I... I have a message for you.¡± He stuttered holding an envelope out in front of him like a shield.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    I wanted to snatch it out of his hands but I held myself back, etiquette is very after all important... and don''t listen to Blood when she says otherwise. (Do listen to me, you''ll have so much more fun!)


    ¡°What is it?¡± I asked, keeping my voice carefully level, I could feel the miasma of my mind receding already as schemes and plots began forming before my mind¡¯s eye.


    ¡°I do not know ladyship,¡± he said cowering before me. ¡°I of course would never read an intelligencer''s letters but... but your father was... very angry when he handed it to me.¡±


    I nearly smiled at that, me smiling, can you believe it? (Yes and even though it took us years to find out she has a really cute smile)[35] Forcing my lips back together I extended a hand for the letter and dismissed him. He vanished with every sign of relief back into the depths of the house as I stalked back to my desk. Falling into my chair I ripped open the off white envelope and smoothed it out on the upper strata of my paperwork mountains. My air of confidence and zeal became one of bemusement as I realised it was a page from a diary.


    ¡°I have finally found them! The carnival of Velvet Shadows! They who it is claimed dance in every ball, whisper in every assembly and vote on every law. The kingmakers themselves have said I am worthy of joining them! They even say that I might one day be made into Arch-Doge just as they made that fool Fabien Barden into the lord of Prasus! Soon I will be recognised for my brilliance and receive the reward that is my due! I will be the lord of my house!! The lord of the whole city!!! And all I had to do was burn down a few slum blocks. I didn''t do it personally of course, how barbaric, that''s why we have guardsmen. Just the next day I received my invitation and today I shall be hosting my first meeting where they shall fully confirm me as one of them! Soon enough the whole house... no the whole world will be at my feet! ¡±


    I sighed deeply, the page was stolen, according to the signature at the bottom (yes he was that stupid), from Lord Francis Lanin¡¯s diary and as you might guess from the surname we are related, cousins in fact. He was a great patron of the arts, champion horse rider, one of the most eligible bachelors in Prasus and....just going by the number of exclamation marks he uses in his diary, he was also so far around the bend he couldn''t see it with a telescope.


    If the ludicrous punctuation wasn''t damming enough evidence anyone who fell for the Carnival of Velvet Shadows spiel was definitely crazy. As an intelligencer part of my job was to keep watch over the cults, crazies and killers that prowled the dark side of the city. Some of these were seriously big fish in the city''s social scene, powerhouses with high stakes connections in the houses and the patronage of incredibly powerful individuals... The Carnival of Velvet Shadows was not one of these. Despite its lofty claims it was only six eons old and possessed barely any power or influence probably because it had been founded by a greengrocer. It wasn¡¯t the first cult to claim to be behind the Arch-Doges rise to power and it wouldn''t be the last.


    After reading, I noticed that hanging from the stolen page was a small note written in a smooth flowing script and stamped with our house seal. (A pair of ridiculously fat sea lions which she genuinely thinks are cool[36]).


    ¡°Your cousin is in over his head.


    He has shamed our house.


    Deal with him.


    -Lord Lanin.¡±


    Well it looks like father had given me a target, the house''s shadows were mine to command and most importantly mine to police, when the shadows of my house began to creep where they weren¡¯t wanted I was the one who cut them back. My cousin had broken the rules of etiquette that were the only thing that kept the nobility from spilling enough blood to stain the sea red. And that meant he had to be removed, quickly and quietly.


    I smiled to myself and walked over to my side table picking up and strapping on my sheathed sword before slipping my mask into its designated inner pocket... finally time for some fresh air.

 The Month of Wilt - 2

    As someone actually standing in that fresh air I can assure you it is overrated. I stamped my boots and half bent over pulling my arms in tight to my chest and trying to ignore the howling wind that whipped around me. Looking down I saw Bloods red pointed boots stroll casually past me, both they and their owner seemingly immune to the cold.


    With a contemptuous huff I was forced to settle for pulling my cloak tight around me and fidgeting with the straps of my mask to lift the icy stone off my skin. There wasn''t even a sister in the sky that night and the star speckled darkness above me seemed to be radiating coldness that frosted on the metal of the rooftop.


    ¡°How long until you¡¯re done?¡± I called over my shoulder, still busy staring up at the sky and thinking longingly about our hideouts roaring fire.


    ¡°Not long,¡± said the reassuring and cheerfully inaccurate voice of Blood, ¡°hey if you want something to do one of them had this on him.¡± A large leather satchel landed in front of me with a thump. ¡°Might be something valuable in it.¡±


    I fumbled the satchel open with freezing fingers and found it was full of hundreds of small flyers. Each was black card some thirty centimetres long and ten wide and covered in drawings of roses, angels and swords all done in deep red ink.


    ¡°And if it turns out it''s useless we can just burn it which should at least stop your teeth from chattering.¡± Blood continued conversationally to a background of twanging noises. I gritted my teeth both to stop the little hellion from laughing at me and also because the idea of burning anything with writing on it had always seemed almost sacrilegious to me. I am not the most religious person (I was somewhat put off by the first commandment of Koth ¡°Burn all magic users then scoop their ashes together and burn them again¡±) but you¡¯ve still got to have standards.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    So to the accompaniment of clattering, clanging and sotto voce cursing behind me I drew out one of the tiny cards and began to read.


    The Great and Terrible Conjunction is upon us!


    All who walk the true Shadowed path shall be rewarded!


    The Power of the old wanes as our waxes!


    Come Brothers and Sisters together we shall shape the world!¡±


    I was already grinning at the crude prose, random capitals and overbearing tone but the next line was what sent me over the edge.


    Meeting at the Duke Lanin¡¯s manor on proud street, if lost ask at Mrs. Main¡¯s pie shop for directions.


    Knock three times and ask for the king of the rabbit people.


    Giggling to myself and flipping the flyer over and saw a few more lines of awfully spewed verbiage on the back. I honestly don''t remember what it was, something about black stars and new worlds and lots to do with shadows nothing interesting apart from the last line


    And with the spilled blood of the commoner we shall have true power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


    I read the line twice to be sure then I narrowed my eyes.


    ¡°Blood.¡±


    ¡°Yeah Bright?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve got our next target.¡±


    ¡°Great... gimme a sec though.¡±


    ¡°Oh honestly aren¡¯t you done yet?¡± I asked, turning around.


    ¡°Now I am!¡± crows Blood triumphantly stepping back from her masterpiece. The entire gang we had so recently defeated was hung upside down by long ropes, stripped to their small clothes and covered in blue paint that Blood had assured me was nearly impossible to wash off.


    She looked up at the hanging figures and, sighing dramatically, ran a finger across her porcelain cheek ¡°Art touches the soul so deeply no?¡± She said with an audible smile, I threw the flyer at her.


    Seconds later the roof was empty apart from a dozen unconscious painted gangsters, some empty paint cans and a burning satchel[37].

 Interlude - Awkward Family Meetings

    Whilst Blood and Bright were across the city humiliating various inconsequential and lowly gangsters I was arriving at my cousin¡¯s home. He lived in an extremely ugly little villa balanced right on the edge of one of the outermost noble districts called rather optimistically Gem Chalice. Its most noticeable feature was the marble.... or to be more accurate the marble effect. Real marble was far too expensive for such a lesser scion to afford so he had done his best with¡­ and again I nearly laughed out loud¡­ painted and sculpted Earln wood. Only a few people were vain and stupid enough to commission something like that and my opinion of my cousin, always low, dropped further still.


    Stalking along the frost slicked pavement of the Gem Chalice district towards my cousin''s villa I was passed by a procession of extravagant coaches and steaming horses of both the flesh and metal varieties but everything from the beasts to the livery was of noticeably low quality. I would have to acquire a copy of the guest list and pass it to my father. I had no doubt it would be useful to him to see who amongst our so-called equals was desperate enough to throw their lot in with the idiots of the Carnival.


    As I walked past the fake gilt gates at the end of the road and turned into the street proper I noticed the unobtrusive queue, or at least that¡¯s what they thought it was but... oh by Koth it was just terrible. I actually chuckled at that, it was just SO awful. As one who walks the somewhat shadowed path I know a thing or two about subtlety, subterfuge, stealth and a whole host of other sneaky words starting with s but these wannabe cultists hadn¡¯t got a clue.


    Seriously, they had left their coaches as etiquette demands in a line down the entire length of the street, each covered in more gilt and powdered footmen than the last. Then they had gone and cowered under the overhang of some of the smaller manors that nestled up next to the pavement as if the tiny amount of shadow would conceal their garish costumes and clashing colour choices. There they squatted in their sliver of shade, loudly going ¡°shush¡± when anyone so much as coughed.


    The worst part of it all was that it really was a queue meaning that the entire line shuffled forwards every few moments as another noble darted out of the sparse shadows and up to the villa door where they were let inside with a near comic pantomime of subterfuge.


    It was embarrassing to everyone involved in every way imaginable and I decided not to take part in it.


    Instead I strode past the line entirely ignoring the outraged gasping and spluttering. Reaching the end in seconds rather than hours I pushed the current petitioner away from the door with a two handed shove. Then I lifted my scabbarded sword and, using the pommel, knocked heavily.


    Before the bowled over noble could manage more than a stunned ¡°I say!¡± The cheap carved door swung open and a short slim flunky peered out at me. He wore a long grey smock that I noticed instantly was several seasons out of date, a flat cap that had never been in date and held a large silver tray on which were a pile of what looked like black paper oblongs covered in crude red scrawling.


    ¡°Madam, have you come to see the King of the Rabbit People?¡± Asked the butler in a voice obviously intended to sound loquacious and well bred but I am well bred and he sounded like a two bit actor who¡¯d been at the gin.


    I really didn''t have time for my cousin''s hired help so I simply raised my hand and showed him the signet ring that sat on my middle finger. His eyes went most satisfactorily wide as he looked down at the golden sea lions on their obsidian band (I told you! Sea lions! They look like big fat living mattresses)[38].


    ¡°Ah... you...¡±


    I pushed past the stuttering servant and headed into the house. I knew my cousin wouldn''t miss a second of his big party, he¡¯d be in the very centre of it lapping up the attention like a gryshk would a bowl of cream, all I would need to do to find him was follow the stink of pretentiousness.


    Of course word of my arrival reached him ahead of me. I saw a few maids scurrying back and forth in the distance at intervals, most heading the same way I was and when I got to the ballroom the pair of guards who were flanking the door just bowed and opened it without comment.


    A rush of heat and light hit me as I stepped into the packed room from the dark corridor into the glowing ballroom. The air smelled faintly of lilacs which I noted with interest, lilacs weren''t cheap, my cousin¡¯s cult was obviously desperate to make a good impression on him. That little bit of flattery would probably have nearly bankrupted them.


    I stalked through the party my long black cloak standing out amongst the sea of a thousand catastrophically clashing colours. My sabre was hidden again and my mask hung from my belt, no reason for my dearest cousin to know why I had come just yet.


    He wasn¡¯t hard to spot even in the riotous party. He wore an outrageous outfit of shining golden cloth draped over large rings which made him look like a tacky concertina and a huge mask made from something like jade (I''m guessing from what we saw of him that it was actually something much cheaper. I mean his mask was the size of a door, I doubt there¡¯s that much jade in the whole world).The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    I had half expected him to ignore me as I moved through the crowd like a reef shark through a salmon school but even he wasn¡¯t that dumb. Instead as I arrived at his side he turned a pirouette and bowed to me as the crowd of noble women around him oohed and aahed.


    ¡°Ah my dearest cousin,¡± he boomed with false delight. I just fixed him with my second iciest glare.


    ¡°I take it Lord Lanin sent you here?¡± He asked not the slightest bit ashamed or worried instead he sounded almost... eager?


    ¡°Yes that''s right.¡± I replied steadily as my hand slowly clasped around my sabres handle, neatly concealed beneath my cloak. Had I underestimated him? Did he lure me here?


    ¡°Finally! I always told him that the Carnival would lead our house to greatness,¡± he turned to his admirers and posed. ¡°I am afraid I shall have to leave you ladies. I must attend to my cousin.¡±


    The assembled women waved and giggled at him as he strode away and I dropped easily into his wake silently stoic to every eye but guffawing on the inside, the idiot thought I was here to reward him!


    ¡°I take it your father wants an invitation as well?¡± asked Francis over his shoulder with a supercilious tone. ¡°I think I might be able to swing him one... maybe... but I¡¯d have to look into it a bit. I may need a month or two.¡±


    I decided to tell him the truth. It is worth me pointing out now dear reader that one can be truthful without being honest.


    ¡°Father was... astonished that you joined the Carnival. He asked me to attend this ball the second he found out.¡±


    Here¡¯s a little bit of advice I give all my rats. ¡°Never lie if you can help it instead try to twist the truth. It always has a better ring to it.¡±


    ¡°Of course he did, of course he did!¡± Bellowed my cousin leading me towards a half concealed staircase set into a bookcase (seriously! Why always with the bookcases?).


    I followed him but, just before my foot hit the bottom most stair I felt a sudden electric surge across my skin like I¡¯d touched an aetheric port on a lumina. I stopped and spun around to look up at the gallery of the hall... but all I saw was blazing lights and hanging smoke.


    ¡°Something the matter, cousin?¡± asked Francis disingenuously, obviously taking my instinctive reaction for nervousness.


    ¡°No.¡± I replied and hurried after the wannabe cult master as he led me up the staircase and out onto an empty landing. Passing a few silently scurrying servants we crossed into a long corridor and headed down it into another, then another, then another.


    I knew my cousin was trying to disorientate me before our meeting and I knew that because I was the one who taught him to do that. But that wouldn''t work on me.


    ¡°Francis,¡± I said sweetly. ¡°Wouldn''t that last left have gotten us to your study quicker?¡±


    Even with the mask on I saw his eyes widen, I am the intelligencer of our family line so it¡¯s my job to know everything, including the layouts to all our properties.


    ¡°Ah yes of course.¡± He muttered, turning back and leading us down it.


    A single turn later and we stood before a small but thickly ornamented door which opened with nothing more than a light push, the moron didn''t even lock his private study!


    As we entered Francis gestured me towards a seat then strode over to the fireplace where he struck a pose, I was genuinely impressed by the recovery powers of his ego. I ignored the chair and looked around the room. Unlike my own study which was somehow both messy and sparse, this was filled with tasteless knickknacks and neatly filed stacks of paper. I distrusted that instantly, anyone who really kept on top of the political game in Prasus didn''t have time to file.


    ¡°Help yourself to a drink cousin.¡± He said with a smile pulling off his mask and dropping it onto an enormous lacquered stand next to his desk.


    I of course didn''t drink, or smile, just stood silently as he turned to regard the fire. ¡°You must tell your father that he can''t expect many more favours after this, getting an invitation to the Carnival is hard,¡± his voice dripped with pretension and I had to fight the urge to punch him. ¡°After all those enlightened few who wait in the shadows are the ones who truly rule this city.¡±


    ¡°Is that what they told you?¡± I asked belligerently, no matter what I thought of him, two members of our house could never be seen to disagree in public, behind closed doors is another story of course. ¡°The Carnival hasn¡¯t existed for five minutes they¡¯re just a group of wannabes and has-beens who try to drag in the desperate and stupid with promises of power.¡±


    Francis didn''t turn to face me but I could see from the straining muscles in his neck that this was a significant effort.


    ¡°The Carnival is the greatest power of this city so of course they lead others to believe that they are new or weak. But their resources are...¡±


    ¡°...Are extensive in terms of flowers and seeds because they were founded by a cartel of grain merchants,¡± I snapped. ¡°You¡¯re taking orders from a green grocer.¡±


    ¡°NEVER!¡± He bellowed turning to face me at last, I could see the light of true madness dancing in his eyes. ¡°I never take orders! I chose to join them! I performed the initiation...¡±


    ¡°Oh and don''t get me started on that,¡± I hissed, my voice all the sharper for its lack of volume. ¡°Burning down a slum and massacring innocent peasants? I thought that the report I got about the Rose Hill disaster was rather light on details but what I had never suspected was that you would be this insane!¡±


    ¡°You speak as all the nonbelievers do!¡± He howled slamming a fist into the copper lintel, ¡°you are nothing compared to me; I am the lord of the shadows! I will rule this city...,¡± he paused and took a deep ragged breath. ¡°...Why did father send you here for his invitation if you can''t even see the truth?¡±


    I smiled without humour and shrugged my cloak open. Reaching to my belt I drew out my mask and slipped it on the pure black skull sliding easily over my face, ¡°I think, dear cousin, that you have misunderstood my reasons for being here tonight.¡±


    Francis recognised the mask of course and what it meant. Shaking with fear he staggered away raising his arms to shield himself. ¡°But... but... I¡¯m supposed to rule... you can''t! YOU CAN''T!¡±

 The Month of Wilt - The Storm arrives

    Blood and I arrived at the address from the flyer in no time at all. I had finally given up on learning the raven step[39] from Blood (Partially because of the way my tutor fell over with laughter every time I face planted into the pavement) so we¡¯d had to avoid the Grand Canal but we¡¯d made up time using a loading crane that had been left unattended.


    We landed on the rooftops of the gem chalice district not far from the mansion and dashed across the shadowed rooftops until we could see the building in the distance. This wasn''t very hard as the building in question was extremely impressive[40], a late Prasian golden age villa made from marble which shone brightly even without a sister in the sky. It was girded with tall walls, lush gardens, ornamental ponds and... a queue.


    It was the strangest sight I had ever seen in my life (up until that point at least since then I¡¯ve seen a whole lot more) tens maybe hundreds of rich powerful nobles each as proud as a cat and as vicious as a tiger queuing with good order along a deserted street. Most looked like they were half trying to hide in the shadows of doorways or overhangs next to the Lanin front door but at the same time they still wanted people to see their outfits. So they strode from shadow to shadow over exaggerating every motion and loudly hushing one another when their outfits rustled or rattled.


    I found myself laughing a silent yet shoulder shaking laugh at the sheer pageantry of it all as strutting figures tried to skulk, briefly I entertained the thought that we might have stumbled into some theatre company¡¯s comedic farce being performed on the street by a group of overdressed and under skilled actors.


    It was as I stood doubled over laughing that I remembered the invitation I had tucked into my pocket, between silent gasps and dealing with the lung ache I managed to ask Blood (rather breathlessly) if we should try to sneak in.


    ¡°You see their clothes?¡± She asked, pointing. ¡°They¡¯d spot us a mile off in our thieving outfits. We¡¯re far too understated to be nobles.¡± She was right of course but I was so used to being a noble that it didn''t occur to me that they wouldn''t think of me as one. Yes I know I''m wearing a mask and sitting on a rooftop at night with a mace and my crazy all in red dressed friend. Don¡¯t judge me! It''s an involuntary thing you know?


    Anyway whilst I was worrying about how to get in without blowing our cover I heard Blood mutter ¡°oh slet this.¡± next to me followed by a deep base thump as she leapt off the rooftop, clearing the twenty metre wide road easily even from a standing start, and landed on one of the villa''s wide balconies. She rolled as she landed and came up swinging, punching the flimsy door clean off its hinges accompanied by the creaking, cracking cacophony of breaking wood.


    As far as Blood was concerned there were two main schools of thought on making noise during heists, there was Blood who thought it was totally fine and there was everyone else who disagreed.


    I looked down hurriedly but the sound hadn''t carried far even in the still air thanks mainly to the susurration from below. The nobles continued to preen, pose and gossip in the shadows below and, even as I watched, another burst of murmuring erupted thanks to the actions of a smaller than average noble woman half hidden in the folds of a huge black coat and hood who actually bowled over an older nobleman as she pushed her way through the queue towards the door[41].


    Sighing at the rudeness of my fellow nobles I stepped back away from the edge. As Blood waved at me I took a deep steadying breath, made sure my footing was good then, cursing internally, I charged forwards towards the ten story drop. Hurtling across the rooftop with all my might I pushed my legs to the limit and feeling them burn as I ran faster, faster, faster then, as my foot hit the lip of the building, I jumped and levelled my mace at a gargoyle on the villa roof.


    I won¡¯t bore you with the details but within seconds I was standing next to Blood[42] and looking into one of the huge sea-glass windows next to the ruined doorway. The view it offered was slightly warped but I could still see the bright lanterns dotting the ceiling and the swirling masked figures dancing on the coloured tiles beneath them.


    Blood and I darted through the shattered door side by side and found ourselves in a narrow gallery far above the dance floor. We both quickly realised how exposed we were and darted forwards as one into the lee of the marble balustrade that ran around the edge of the gallery. Pressing ourselves flat against its reassuring bulk we both peered over the carved top and looked down at the seething mass of nobles far below.


    The hall was filled with both people and sound but whilst loud it was all oddly indistinct, it was the sound of thousands of different people all trying to make themselves heard over one another but instead becoming a single wordless susurration that seemed to hang in the lilac scented air.


    Next to me Blood was scanning the moving ocean of people, her head twitching left and right like a cat on a fence watching birds swoop by. Then she went perfectly still and pointed.


    ¡°There he is!¡± She whispered the excitement actually breaking her voice, sometimes it was easy to forget how young she was.


    I followed her gaze and saw at the far end of the ballroom a hugely tall but stick thin noble wearing an outfit of ridiculous golden rings draped with bolts of gold cloth and a hugely oversized jade mask. Even as we watched the noble, bowing and waving to his admirers, left the room via a half hidden staircase in the back left hand corner of the ballroom. He was followed closely by a short black clad figure that had nearly been lost in the chaos of the ball room, the girl from the street I was sure. I stared at her hard wondering just who she was and what she was doing here... then without warning Blood tackled me and bore me to the ground.


    I lay there gasping for a moment as the shock of the sudden impact ebbed away. After my breath returned I glared at Blood (a useless gesture through a mask I know) and went to sit up but the younger girl had laid an arm across my chest. She wasn¡¯t actually pushing down on me but I still found I couldn''t move an inch, like someone had dropped a steel beam on me.


    ¡°Good instincts that one.¡± Murmured Blood approvingly, confused I squirmed on my back for a second and looked down between the wide stone struts of the bannister to see the tiny black dressed figure was half turned towards us. Her head was hidden by her hood but nevertheless she seemed to be looking right up at us. For a moment my heart pounded in my ears and my hand edged towards my mace... then she turned back to the stairs and followed the oversized jade mask wearing man up.


    ¡°Very good,¡± continued Blood letting me up at last. ¡°We need to be a little bit careful.¡±


    ¡°Wha...¡± I spluttered, scrabbling upright at last then quickly realising what a monumentally stupid thing to do that was and having to throw myself back down again. ¡°What do you mean and how did she know we were up here?¡±


    Blood sighed indulgently at my inexperience as we started to slowly creep around the edge of the room. ¡°You looked at her.¡±


    ¡°Of course I...¡±


    ¡°Don''t look directly at people you¡¯re tailing, always look to their sides. People can tell when they¡¯re being looked at, they can feel it on their skin.¡±


    ¡°I can''t!¡± I warbled as we stopped moving.


    Blood shook her head and muttered something that I swear sounded like ¡°monkeys!¡± Then she turned and looked speculatively at a door next to us (which was directly above the exit from the room jade mask and black cloak had taken). One quick shoulder charge later and we were both finally out of the light and smoke and noise of the ballroom.


    ¡°I¡¯ll teach you¡± she said running down the new corridor ¡°It''s really fun, I get to spend hours staring at you from various angles whilst you get stared at from various angles.¡±


    ¡°How do you know all this stuff?¡± I gasped drawing my mace again as we sprinted towards the distant light of a stairwell.


    ¡°Butler¡¯s don''t just serve tea." Answered Blood entirely to my bewilderment then she drew her rapiers with a silvery flourish as she hit the staircase. Blood was being over dramatic as it turned out because it took us five more minutes and a lot of scouting to find the actual staircase that jade mask and black cloak had used and we only found it in the end because I caught sight of the ballroom at the bottom.


    Of course by this point jade mask and black cloak weren¡¯t anywhere to be seen neither on the stairs nor on the landing at the top but there was only one door they could have gone through.


    I walked over to it as slowly and stealthily as I could and reached for the handle but before my fingers even touched it Blood caught my hand. I turned to look at her as she cocked her head to one side.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± I hissed looking around.


    ¡°I just heard someone fall over in there,¡± she whispered back, ¡°someone else is still moving, I can hear boots on carpet and...¡± She stopped and cocked her head. ¡°I think they can hear me?¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Well they¡¯ve stopped moving!¡± She huffed and then with her normal impetuousness she kicked the door open.


    It was a proper nobles study I could see that right away, Father had one rather like it on the top floor of our mansion but his was far more tastefully decorated, this place looked like an abattoir had crashed into a pawnshop and then been filled with the prizes of a beer hall raffle.


    In the centre of the room was a small but neat desk covered in tacky ornaments and squared papers. The walls were lined with... you guessed it... book shelves covered in leather bound tomes, ninety percent of which would doubtless turn out to be family stew recipes, religious pamphlets, bundles of invoices and copies of Who¡¯s Whom[43] from twenty eons ago.


    Of course I only really saw all this later (when the fighting had stopped incidentally), what I noticed at the time was the body. The man in gold from before (minus his mask which revealed that he had dirty blond hair, thin slash like lips and an overly large chin that made him look like an amateurish water painting) was lying sprawled across the floor just inside the room next to a roaring fireplace. Spittle mixed with blood leaked from his mouth whilst a growing purple and black bruise sat on his temple like a rather tasteless cap.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I rushed over to the man to check on him (yes in retrospect I remembered he was the one we were here to rob and who had ordered a whole slum burned to a ground but that didn''t occur to me at the time![44]) but as I did so I saw Blood freeze in my peripheral vision. Stopping, I began to turn to look at her when, entirely without warning, a heavy brass plated almanack spun out of the shadows like a discus and slammed into my head (leaving me both stunned and thanking Koth for my mask). I stumbled backwards and sat down heavily on the floor rubbing my face and moaning in pain as I heard the sudden scream of metal on metal. When I managed to clamber back to my feet I was in the middle of a dual.


    Across the room a figure had appeared from the shadows, the girl from before I was sure. If it was she had shed her cloak and in its place wore a heavy black outfit of leather breeches and a tunic, a chainmail hauberk and a mask. Unlike my mask however which was amateurish or Bloods which was beautiful this girl wore a heavy utilitarian mask made from glittering black iron in the shape of a leering skull. Both it and she looked professional, an impression reinforced seconds later when the girl produced a two handed single edged sabre apparently from thin air and aimed it at Blood even as the crimson girl levelled her own rapiers at the skull mask wearer, for a long moment the two women stood there silently, weighing the odds.


    Blood moved first, she didn''t have much patience and her speed meant that few people could react to her telltales before she could pound them into the ground. Skull mask it turned out was one of those people.


    As I watched awestruck Blood''s lightning fast thrust was slammed aside by a beautiful parry that left Blood swearing over an impaled shelf of books and the skull masked girl free to advance. Skull mask didn''t charge in like Blood would have, instead she closed under Blood''s guard and aimed a single heavy slash directly at her stomach. That should have been the end but Blood has reflexes like a gryshk on a hot metal deck and as well as her rapier she also had her shortsword. The second blade swung and met the sabre locking it in place. A swift kick to the girl''s stomach sent Skull Mask tumbling backwards and let Blood turn her full ire on the bookcase she still had transfixed on her sword. Smashing eight volumes of The Encyclopaedia Prasian off her rapier she pirouetted gracefully and brought both blades to bear on the black clad girl. Darting in close and weaving around her taller opponent like a seagull mobbing an eagle, Blood seemed almost to be dancing but her opponent knew the steps as well. Even as Blood sped up Skull matched her moment to moment moving just as gracefully. Somehow, with only one blade, she blunted Blood''s frenzied assault and even pushed her back across the room. The two warriors almost seemed to synchronise as they fought, becoming a single red and black blur filled with the sound of clashing steel and the flickering light of flying sparks[45].


    I scurried backwards hurriedly scrambling out of the centre of the room and away from the fighting until I was stood in the doorway.


    You might think this was cowardly and you might be right but I have always had a strong sense of my own strengths and weaknesses. I knew these two fighters were both way out of my league. If I got involved it would only slow Blood down and possibly give Skull Mask a chance to stab either her or me. So considering all my options I decided to wedge the door shut again (necessitating me pulling it back onto its hinges) whilst staying out of the way until there was something obvious I could do to help Blood. This had the side benefit of letting me witness some of the finest swordplay I had ever seen in my life.


    Blood finished her berserk flurry and (seemingly inexhaustible) chained it instantly into a rising upper-slash that Skull only narrowly dodged, losing a chunk of her silken sleeve in the process. Skull riposted with an overhead blow that chewed the wood where Blood had been standing a second before, coupled with a kick that knocked the red girl over. Rising up Blood delivered a punishing combination attack with her rapiers *crash* *crash* step *crash* each lightning fast strike slamming into Skull Masks guard making her arms tremble. But the girl had drawn her in I think[46] and parried the attacks one after the other then caught Bloods rapiers on her sabres cross guard and, with a single flicking motion, disarmed the girl neatly.


    As Blood looked down in horror Skull stepped in under her guard and brought a knee up into her masked face, there was a resounding crack as bone struck porcelain and the smaller girl was sent staggering backwards as Skull flourished her sabre with a smug air.


    Stood on shaky legs Blood raised a hand to her mask for a moment as if in disbelief then she turned to stare at Skull with a palpable aura of menace. The girl looked at her rapiers, looked at Skull then seemed to shrug and charged.


    As I said Blood doesn''t have much skill, what she does have is ability instead. There are a few noticeable differences and one of these is in the way you react to things. Any normal fighter wouldn''t have charged an armed opponent whilst unarmed, they¡¯d have thought it was suicide to do so... and because Skull thought that Blood caught her completely off guard[47].


    Blood''s shoulder took the taller girl in the stomach, knocking the air from her lungs and lifting her off the floor and carrying the taller girl as if she weighed less than a feather. Blood twisted her shoulder in her belly and hurled skull mask backwards across the study. She slammed into the opposite wall with a dull boom and tumbled down to the ground.


    Blood was on her in seconds, her retrieved rapiers in hand she brought the two tarnished silver blades up and then jabbed them straight down... into the wood where the skull masked girl had been.


    Blood turned, grabbed her rapier from the floor and leapt towards the black clad girl and before Skull Mask could even begin clambering to her feet Blood was above her weapons raised. Skull mask stared at her as Blood brought her rapiers stabbing down.... and into the floor. Instead of being stabbed in both shoulders (Blood always makes sure to aim for extremities) skull mask was suddenly standing on the opposite side of the room. Now I knew she was fast but nobody was that fast... And I could feel my skin prickling.


    ¡°Well well well,¡± crowed Blood sounding like one of her ravens. ¡°A mage... How fun!¡±


    Skull obviously disagreed because she came at Blood hard. She darted in and then feinted to the left bringing her blade up and hacking at Bloods legs as she did so. Blood responded by jumping the blade and riposting with a rapier strike that left a glowing red line in the air and ended in a flaming hissing crater in the floor.


    Skull looked at the red hot rapier that was juddering an inch from her face then up at Blood who waved with her other hand. ¡°Heya,¡± she said companionably. ¡°My trapping is fire by the by, what''s yours? Some sort of teleporting right?¡±


    Skull nodded seemingly despite herself then she rapidly shook her head and struck at Bloods neck with a furious sabre stroke. Unluckily for her however Blood had mastered the art of using magic to aid swordplay. Blood sent a burst of flame running down both her swords, one exploded out of the ground where it had been lodged and slammed skulls sabre away the other struck out creating a blast like a clockwork grenade that hurled the girl backwards. As the taller girl reeled, Blood raised both her glowing rapiers, twirled them in the air causing a shower of sparks, then hammered them down into skull masks chest... or again where her chest would have been a second ago because she was just gone.


    Blood barely had time to turn before she was forced to parry another flurry of blows. They¡¯re three blades locked again in a great shower of sparks[48] as the two women strained but Blood''s strength is superhuman. With a twist and flick Blood threw skull backwards and into a bookcase, the tall girl stumbled shaking her head muzzily as Blood darted in, she barely managed to raise her sabre before one of Blood¡¯s rapiers slammed it aside and the other lodged in the girls chest... or that''s what should have happened because the heartbeat before the blow could land the girl was again stood on the opposite side of the room.


    Blood was getting angry now I could practically feel the rage dripping off her. Having an opponent she couldn''t just overwhelm was bad enough but one that wouldn''t play fair? That was infuriating.


    Letting out a howl of rage that sounded barely human Blood charged skull again, a thrust turned a bookcase into charcoal and slash took the head off a bust but neither came within a metre of skull as she bobbed and weaved away across the room. Blood chases her, completely enraged now. She moved like a windmill in a storm that had somehow caught fire, a freewheeling blur of steel and heat that cut apart or burned to ash anything between her and her target. And In that spinning, hacking, stabbing rage I finally saw skull''s strategy. She wasn''t striking back not even when presented with a huge opening, not even when Blood overreached on a wild swing or stab and nearly toppled over. Instead she had taken a solid defensive stance and she simply teleported away each time Blood found a way around it.


    I knew who was going to win at this rate. Blood had strength and her magic was inherently deadly but remember that it burned her actual blood away to use it. It wouldn''t be long before she couldn''t stand let alone fight.


    Blood may be impetuous, rude and easily angered but she is no fool. She knew precisely what Skull Mask was trying to do and she knew how to stop her. Blood planted her boot hard on the ground, spun her swords in a figure of eight and then drove them down into the planked floor. As they slammed into the wood they released a wave of deep crimson flame all around her. For a moment skull mask wavered, staring at the onrushing wall of flame then she vanished... and appeared in the centre of the flaming room desperately stamping at the smouldering ground.


    Blood didn''t give her a moment¡¯s respite, as the girl reappeared she was already in motion, crossing the floor like a red lightning bolt thrown by a particularly peeved deity. Skull assumed her defensive stance again but Blood didn''t raise her rapiers. Instead with a metres clearance between them she leapt flying through the air and hurtling over Skull Mask.


    Skull only managed to look up in time to see Blood''s red silk shoes skim her head then the tiny girl was on the floor again and still running without break or pause. Skull seemed to relax for a moment almost like she thought Blood had been scared off but then she noticed where the crimson girl was running, it took her a moment to put it together then... it¡¯s not possible for a human being to go from a dead stop to a full sprint but she nearly managed it. Skull sprinted after Blood with true panic written across her form and giving flight to her limbs but Blood hadn''t stopped or stumbled even after her jump. She ran like a lightning bolt forking from a blood red sky, her eyes fixed on her target.


    ¡°You¡¯re not a teleporter!¡± yelled Blood stopping by the wall and drawing back her rapier, ¡°you¡¯re only able to move to one spot...¡± Skull stumbled and staggered after her sabre swinging wildly without any of its normal poise. ¡°...the mirror!¡± Blood slammed her rapier into her own reflection.


    The glass shivered for a moment and seemed to ripple then, it exploded. Fragments of mirrored glass flew across the room as tiny chunks fell to the floor.


    That''s when Skull finally caught up, staring at the devastated mirror she nevertheless managed to bring her sword around in a flat sweep which impacted with Blood''s hastily raised guard. Normally she might have been able to deflect it but Blood had thrown her form off in the mad dash to smash the mirror and Skull hadn''t. The black clad girl skipped her blade over Bloods, knocked them from her hands, kicked her in the ribs and then drove her to the floor with the aid of a sabre handle to the throat.


    Pausing over the gasping defenceless Blood skull mask spun her long silver sabre in a dramatic figure of eight, raised it high[49] and... I smacked her in the back of the head with my mace. She went over like a tree.


    I looked around the wrecked and very much on fire room, down at the two unconscious girls and finally across at the still comatosed Baron. Then I sighed and began to pump up my grappling hook.


    I¡¯ll hand you back to Skull for the next bit. Enjoy!


    You can imagine my surprise I am sure, to ever wake up again after the fight I had just endured. I mean as far as I was concerned a pair of oddly dressed guards had wandered in right when I was going through my cousin¡¯s mail (after knocking the prat unconscious of course). One had turned out to be an incredible swordswomen and had fought me to a standstill which caused me to use my magic thanks to sheer panic. She had then overwhelmed my magic with her own magic and then, the second I thought I¡¯d beaten her, her friend had hit me in the head and knocked me out.


    I expected to... well wake up dead[50] but instead I woke up in the cold night air on a chilly but reasonably comfortable shale rooftop still fully armoured and with my mask on (don''t worry we didn''t peak). As I craned my neck to look around I looked down at myself and saw, lying on my chest, a large manila envelope, I thought it looked like it had come from my cousins stationery set a thought that quickly lead me to deduce exactly what the large warm and strangely soft lump I was sitting on was.


    I got off my cousin and pulled out a boot knife then cut off the letters wax seal, inside was a crudely drawn map and a single line of writing that read simply, ¡°Aren¡¯t you lonely?¡±


    And well... the rest as they say is history.

 The Month of Wilt - Growing Family

    ¡°It''s a trap.¡±


    ¡°It''s definitely a trap.¡±


    ¡°But he''s nice!¡± I complained, peering over the gargoyles wing again. The Baron was still standing silently in the pouring rain far below us looking up at the night sky. ¡°He said he wanted to thank us, right? He''s one of the good nobles surely?¡±


    Blood sighed and turned to Skull. ¡°You can see it too, right?¡±


    Skull nodded the metal of her mask dull enough that it didn''t flash even under the light of all three sisters. ¡°Bright, please pay closer attention.¡± She said as she pulled herself up next to me, I winced under my mask expecting another lecture but instead the black clad girl just pointed down at the street again. Turning to follow her finger I sidled up to the roof edge again and peered over.


    From under the cover of the gargoyles raised wings I stared down at the street below. The first thing I noticed was how brightly lit it was, even at night. It was partly thanks to the three sisters overhead but mostly because of the four lines of guttering gas globe on poles that ran along the street. These ticksteel devices were relatively new to the city (outside of the mansions of the nobility of course) and they dimmed and brightened noticeably as their poorly fitted feed pipes were rattled by the roaring wind. Along each side of the road the second stories of the slum buildings spilled out drunkenly across the roadway casting patches of moon shadow like the canopy of some strange forest. Cutting through the uncovered centre of the avenue was a deep canal (like in many of the larger streets of Prasus) designed to allow special gondolas to carry supplies anywhere in the city. Even as I watched another such boat skimmed past us its pilot hard at work over the oars and cursing the spitting sky.


    I couldn¡¯t hear anything but the rain and couldn''t see anything but what I just described to you. However I could smell something, something like.... rotten bread and.... well... as a noblewoman I should call it bad eggs.


    ¡°I can smell something... bad, is that right?¡± I asked looking back at the other two girls. For a moment they just stared at me; then I could feel them smile.


    ¡°Yes!¡± exclaimed Blood, giving me a thumbs-up.


    ¡°Slow,¡± said Skull stiffly, then she nodded at me. ¡°But you got it in the end, satisfactory.¡±


    ¡°Ah come on Skull she''s just learning and she did get it end, that''s good enough right?¡± Blood punched Skull companionably on the arm before crossing over to me and squatting down on the edge of the roof.


    I grinned to myself as I saw Skull circumspectly trying to rub some feeling back into her shoulder as she replied. ¡°It¡¯s good enough for a first time or a training exercise but this is field work! What if she¡¯d just gone down there without seeing it?¡±


    Blood conceded the point with a nod and grabbing me by my arm indicated a patch of mud on the bank of the canal, ¡°know what that smell is Bright? Well the city authorities dumps things in the canals that they don''t want lot of different stuff but mostly rotten food and well... processed food shall we say,¡± to my astonishment I could feel the crimson girl blushing even through her mask (up until then I wasn''t sure Blood could even feel the emotion of embarrassment). She shuffled her feet for a second before continuing. ¡°...Anyway it mostly goes along the canals and out into the ocean but some gets stuck on the banks and then turns into muck, that smell is disturbed muck.¡±


    ¡°That means if we¡¯re lucky someone, or if we aren¡¯t something, is hidden just under the Baron¡¯s feet in the mud bank,¡± Skull pointed. ¡°Look, you can see the bulge it¡¯s either a probably very unhappy guardsman in sealed armour or an automaton of some kind.¡±


    ¡°So in conclusion,¡± said Blood, dragging me into a one armed hug. ¡°It''s a trap.¡±


    ¡°Definitely a trap.¡± Nodded Skull.


    I sighed, ¡°It¡¯s a trap,¡± What else could I do but agree? ¡°So what should we do about it?¡±


    Skull looked up and down the quiet street and I followed her gaze. In the distance a few peasants scurried home, below us the Baron waited, far along the canal I could still see the cursing gondolier skimming along, all in all it wasn''t a very comprehensive trap. ¡°We should sneak aw...¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go set it off!¡± said Blood in a tone of childlike delight then, without further ado, she stepped off the roof. I leapt forwards, desperately trying to catch her cloak but she was gone in less than a heartbeat. Falling onto my stomach I scrambled forwards and looked over the lip with mounting horror as Blood pirouetted through the air and landed with catlike grace on the ground below.


    To my left I heard Skull curse even over the rain as we watched Blood swagger forwards towards the Baron who still stood there unaware of her presence, water dripping off his long blonde hair as the distant gaslights flared in the night haloing the scene with watery illumination.


    ¡°Heya!¡± she yelled loud enough to be heard in the next street whilst waving cheerfully at the man.


    I was just about to leap down to follow her when a loud metallic thump startled me. Terrified we¡¯d been ambushed I flinched and twisted around like a startled rabbit just in time to see Skull slam her head into the wall again.


    ¡°Do.¡±


    *Thump*


    ¡°You.¡±


    *Thump*


    ¡°Never.¡±


    *Thump*


    ¡°THINK!?¡±


    *Thump*


    Skull collapsed to the rooftop and clutched at her (probably) bruised head for a long second after which she gestured at me. ¡°Go after her Bright I know you want to. I¡¯ll circle around, get a view of the area, scan for other traps or backup and join you if you need me.¡±


    ¡°Uh... right!¡± I gasped then I quickly shot my grapnel into the gargoyles mouth, tugged it once for safety then following Bloods lead, I leapt. I will say I have always loved that one incomparable moment after leaping from a ledge. That moment of freefall just before the grapnel catches. It may only last for a heartbeat or two but a moment you soar.


    I slammed down onto the ground a few paces behind Blood, my boots echoing off the porcelain plated tiles. I had twisted in place to face her and even managed to take a step towards her before I realised something, my grapnel was stuck... again.


    First I tried to free it with an innocuous little over the shoulder jerk first then after that failed I grabbed the rope two handed and tried pulling it side to side hoping to wiggle the head out of the gargoyles mouth bit by bit. Next to me Blood began to giggle hysterically to herself.


    After a few moments during which all I felt was the rope pull tighter I gave up on the wiggling plan and switched to brute force. Grabbing the rope in a two handed grip I leant back on my heels and pulled with all my might. For a second nothing happened then suddenly[51] the grappling hook released its hold on the statue above me... and I fell over onto the floor. Blood was already laughing uproariously at this point and she very nearly fell over when I did. The noble simply stared at us in shock and amazement until Blood stopped giggling enough to help me to my feet.


    ¡°Well that was an entrance and a half!¡± She said, slapping me on the back. I for my part was watching the noble closely. To start with it had just been to see if he was going to laugh at me as well but now that I studied him I could see this whole thing was a trap. Firstly he wasn¡¯t a noble. I could see that now, he stood wrong, leaning forwards to make himself look large and intimidating, nobles didn''t go in for that[52] and he showed absolutely no discomfort even in the ice cold rain like he was used to being outside in all weathers. Finally and most tellingly he hadn''t even once glanced down to check on his beautifully tied cravat or fine silk pantaloons which were both now ruined by the damp.


    Even as we approached him (and remember we look WEIRD) he showed no fear or alarm he just shifted minutely on his feet like a prize fighter warming up.


    ¡°So...,¡± began Blood companionably. ¡°Are you the one who¡¯s going to trigger the thing lurking in the sewage or is someone else watching?¡±


    The man¡¯s eyes narrowed and he scowled, ¡°you¡¯re a sharp one girl; I can see why he took such a dislike to you.¡± The fake Baron flicked his arm and a golden rod shot out into his hand.


    He waved the chimer[53] which emitted a long high pitch scream echoed seconds later by a cry of metal on metal that echoed out of the canal. Behind the false Baron something huge stood up from the muddy riverbed carrying a curtain of filth with it even as it hauled itself up onto the road with a weighty metallic clang that shook the street. For a moment it seemed like a yagorith[54] out of myth then the rain began to cut streaks through the grime and I could see the silver and brass plates below.


    ¡°A war golem,¡± commented Blood without any of the (I felt) justifiable panic she should be feeling whilst facing down five tons of armour plated killing engine. ¡°You¡¯re a mercenary?¡±


    ¡°I prefer the term sellsword myself,¡± replied the man pointing the rod at the golem which froze in place, ¡°I feel I should say thank you by the by, you¡¯ve caused my clients so much bother they¡¯re paying me triple rate to kill you,¡± he leered at us and waved the chimer like a baton. ¡°But anyway, are you two dying now or later? Makes no difference to me.¡±


    ¡°I think neither,¡± replied Blood then she let out a long piercing whistle. ¡°Oh and by the way... there are three of us now.¡±


    The looming Golem seemed to sneeze half bending at the waist and staggering forwards, nearly stepping on the mercenary (who hastily scrambled out of its way). For a second the huge metallic monster froze in that pose then, with a wheezing croak and a billow of oily steam, it sank to its knees. The fake noble drew a dagger and turned in one professional movement but we had our own professional, a black boot lashed out of the darkness around the golem and slammed into his head. I could hear the sick crunch of steel toecaps hitting bone followed by a howl of pain. The self-styled sell sword was thrown off his feet and crashed down onto the cobbles a good dozen paces away, spitting teeth and clutching at his bleeding lips. Behind him Skull leapt down from the crippled golem, her sabre still transfixing its punch card slot.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Blood nodded with what looked like admiration at Skull before turning to look at the cursing man. ¡°I was expecting more.¡± She said sweetly and then, taking a ladylike step forwards, she slammed her boot into his chest and propelled him backwards into the stinking muddy waters of the canal. He vanished into the foetid muck for a second then bobbed to the surface like a cork shot from a bottle. Spluttering and trying not to breathe at the same time he nevertheless managed to curse and swear at us with impressive eloquence as the Prasian riptide dragged him out to sea. Within five heartbeats of hitting the water he vanished around the bend of the canal.


    Skull reached over her shoulder and pulled her sabre free from the golems spitting sparking facial grill then she reached inside its broad armoured torso and ripped out the textual oscillator and the aqueous converter (for once I actually thankful for all those boring mechanical engineering workshops I had been forced to sit through). ¡°These should let us read its orders,¡± she said to us. ¡°We can probably find out where it''s been.¡±


    ¡°Awesome,¡± I replied happily then after a moment¡¯s thought I turned to regard the golem. ¡°But, and correct me if I¡¯m wrong, couldn¡¯t he still repair this thing? I feel we...¡±


    My thought was interrupted by a bloom of unnaturally crimson light as if the moon''s themselves had somehow been encased in rubies. Turning on the spot Skull and I saw Blood standing directly behind us, a glowing ball of vermillion flame in each fist. All around her droplets of rain flashed into steam haloing her in a growing heat haze.


    ¡°Get out of the way.¡± She grunted her voice laced with pain, I felt an icy dagger of panic stab my heart, I always worry about her (just in general really) but especially about her using magic. I know how much it hurts her to use it but she knew herself better than I did of course so there was no way she¡¯d massively overexert herself unnecessarily and nearly drain all of her blood in one go just to show off... right?


    Skull and I barely managed to hit the ground in time as Blood took a stance and hurled the fireballs over arm into the automaton''s chest. Now usually convention says bits of machine should be thrown everywhere, pinwheels pin wheeling off walls and bolts bouncing off floors then the smoke clears and the automatons severed feet are still standing there for humorous effect right? Well this was nothing like that. All that was left after the smoke cleared was some badly scorched pavement and a huge puddle of molten metal.


    ¡°That was awesome!¡± I exclaimed, giving Blood a thumbs up (you do that more than you would ever expect to do when you¡¯re wearing a mask trust me on this).


    Blood preened, ¡°I am perfect you know.¡± She said executing a florid bow... and tumbling forwards towards the pavement. If Skull wasn¡¯t so quick on her feet she would probably have broken a tooth[55]. The older girl hauled the tiny Blood back onto her feet and stared into her masked face.


    ¡°How much did you use?¡± She asked with an audible frown. Skull¡¯s great analytical ability and love of learning had been a huge boon to our thefts the last few cycles but her biggest contribution was her attempts to truly understand magic, specifically she wanted to discover how magic did what it did. That knowledge had once been freely available but it had all been lost in the Arch-Doges bloody pogroms as he rose to power.


    Unfortunately her attempts to rediscover this lost knowledge hadn''t been going great but (thanks to a slightly worrying aptitude for first aid in combat situations) she was able to make some pretty good guesses at how much of her blood Blood[56] could safely use before... well... dying. And she had taken it upon herself to try to instil a small amount of caution in the little red hellion.


    The younger girl shook her off and staggered backwards slightly, ¡°I am perfectly fine!¡± she announced, swaying visibly. ¡°I only used like... twenty percent... maybe twenty five.¡±


    Skull began to swear vociferously as I rushed to Bloods side, the exact sentences she said were (luckily) muffled by her mask but it went on for some time and the few syllables I caught made me blush hotly.


    ¡°Twenty five percent of your blood is gone in one second! You are an idiot... a partially exsanguinated idiot!¡±


    As Skull ranted I pressed a palm to Bloods chest and began to pour life magic into her. For some reason it was much harder to heal her than anyone else I¡¯d ever tried to. Even with direct skin contact it was still like my magic was resisting flowing into her, healing her, but I wasn''t going to let my best friend suffer no matter what. Only about half of everything I pumped into Blood actually gets in so I just try twice as hard to heal her as normal and this usually seems to work. Tires me out a bit of course but it¡¯s worth it as after a moment Blood stopped swaying and I felt a lurch in my stomach like I¡¯d been painlessly kicked, don''t ask how I knew but I knew that that was my magic telling me it had done all it could.


    ¡°I¡¯ve healed her as much as I can but she needs rest.¡± I said looking at Skull. The tall girl nodded then lifted Blood bodily and draped her across one shoulder. The huge height difference (at this point of our career Blood was around one and a quarter metres tall whilst Skull was a hair''s breadth off two) and Blood''s curious lightness meant that Skull didn''t even seem to notice the added weight. I expected Blood to start complaining immediately and as usual I was right.


    ¡°Put me down.¡±


    ¡°This is stupid!¡±


    ¡°I said down!¡±


    ¡°This is undignified!¡±


    ¡°I''m perfect, I don''t need help.¡±


    ¡°Your shoulder is far too bony!¡±


    ¡°This was a total misdiagnosis!¡±


    ¡°I demand a second opinion!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not even a real doctor!¡±


    The catalogue of complaints, insults and accusations of medical malpractice continued the whole way home. Luckily for us, by the time we navigated the disgusting tunnels under our own base, unpicked the many traps, opened the secure doors and dumped Blood on our sofa, she was running out of insults. Skull and I managed to get Blood settled as much as we could and began to fuss over her. The young girl¡¯s usual vitality and fire seemed noticeably banked and her breathing was shallow but still stronger than when Skull had caught her despite Skull having declared it was medically impossible to regenerate any appreciable fraction your body¡¯s total blood volume in two hours (when asked about this Blood insisted she ¡°healed quickly¡± and Skull insisted she was an idiot).


    I ran to our kitchen and got a damp cloth and began to wipe the tunnel mud off of Bloods clothing as Skull pulled jars off shelves and combined tinctures together. After a few seconds of medical bustling however Blood exploded. ¡°RIGHT I CAN''T TAKE THIS!¡± She shouted, kicking her legs and smacking her arms into the sofa like a child having a temper tantrum[57]. ¡°Stop fussing over me, you two! Go and do whatever you want to do ok? I. Am. Fine!¡±


    Skull looked down at the tiny girl with a softness written across her posture and then she sighed and put away the glass she was holding. ¡°You won¡¯t let us look after you?¡± She asked although it wasn¡¯t really a question.


    Blood sniffed and looked away with a surprising air of bashfulness. ¡°It''s... it''s not that I don''t appreciate it, it¡¯s just I don''t want you guys... look I''m fine...¡±


    Skull nodded and patted Blood briefly on the head then she turned away and stalked into her room. As the door swung open I saw books, pens and a rack of messenger ravens before Skull crossed in front of them and vanished around the corner. She didn''t bother closing the door behind her; we had helped her move in after all.


    I looked down at Blood and smiling went back to mopping mud off her. She didn''t even bother arguing, she obviously didn''t think she¡¯d be able to get me to stop worrying about her. She was right, it''s what friends are for after all. Blood half turned her head away from me then sighed tiredly. ¡°That was pretty stupid of me wasn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Yeah it was... but you''re perfect aren¡¯t you?¡± I teased. ¡°You knew you¡¯d be fine.¡±


    She nodded and waved a hand. ¡°Of course!¡±


    I caught her hand gently in mine and leant down to look her seriously in the eye (sockets). ¡°Now,¡± I said in my best imitation of my mother¡¯s stern tone. ¡°You stay here and get some rest and I don''t want you trying to get up before you''re all better.¡± Blood nodded and I pretended not to hear what Skull muttered through the wall as I tucked her in under a thick woollen blanket. Blood squirmed for a second then fell back onto the pillow and lay perfectly still. I think she probably closed her eyes but obviously I couldn''t tell.


    As I went to stand up I pressed my hand to Blood''s arm and pumped the last dregs of my magic into her. Like I mentioned earlier this was far more difficult than with anyone else, my magic always seemed to fade away when it entered her body. Healing other people was like pouring water into a cup but healing Blood was like pouring it in through a cloth. It still went through but a lot just stopped or spilled and even the little bit that got through took much longer to help her[58].


    Leaving Blood to rest I crossed into Skulls room. For someone with such a melodramatic mask and nickname[59] her room was tastefully and subtly decorated. Out of all of us she had the most discerning eye when it came to freeing a noble from his expensive furniture. I grabbed anything that looked vaguely comfortable and Blood just grabbed everything red[60] but Skull actually tried to maintain a continuous aesthetic, white and black with hints of gold. I thought it made her room look subtle and refined, Blood thought it looked like a chessboard that¡¯d crashed into a bank then exploded. After the subsequent row we had agreed to disagree.


    Finding Skull ensconced at her writing desk I paused on the threshold but one of the ravens cawed at me and Skull waved a hand over her shoulder. ¡°Come in Bright, how¡¯s Blood?¡±


    The raven cawed again more insistently this time, we both looked at it for a moment then Skull turned to me with an inquisitive air, I just shrugged at the both of them. ¡°Sorry I still haven¡¯t learned a word of Corvidae but Blood¡¯s going to be fine.¡± That seemed to satisfy the raven who nestled back down on his (or possibly her) perch without another word.


    Skull dropped her quill and gestured at the pages before her. ¡°I think I¡¯ve figured out who wants us dead...¡± she paused and corrected herself. ¡°...who paid to have us killed this time, it was a small coalition of the second and third heirs of some of the lesser houses who were trying to score points with their parents.¡±


    ¡°You think they gave him the automaton?¡± I asked, looking at the chimer I had stolen. It was of an expensively modern design and plated in gold (supposedly for better aether conductivity, I¡¯ve always thought it was just a vanity thing).


    ¡°Without a doubt,¡± replied Skull. ¡°Did you really look at that mercenary? He was an idiot with all the skill and professionalism of a Korlon[61] and none of the charm. Did you notice he didn¡¯t know how his golem worked? He just had a preset punch card sequence and his dagger was...¡±


    I felt myself drift away from my body, slightly lulled into a half sleep by the torrent of words streaming past me. Words like ¡°steel like pseudo alloy¡± ¡°eastern influences reeking of an undisciplined amateur¡± and ¡°obvious micro-expressions¡± floated by every few seconds as I felt myself fading further and further. Skull eventually noticed[62] and wrapped up with. ¡°Look he was a badly trained amateur with expensive toys which were obviously his down payment. I''m just glad Blood knocked him into the river before using her magic. He may have been a joke but an Inquisitor turning up would ruin the punch line.¡±


    Even with Skulls'' humour I felt my spine freeze, unbidden images rushed through my mind of a different time and place of a tall man in black, a young boy crying, a flash of steel and a spray of blood soaking into the carpet. My heart raced faster and faster and I felt sick beginning to rise in my throat as the memories overwhelmed me.


    ¡°Oy!¡± Blood''s voice cut through the tide of ancient pain like a knife, jerking me back into the present so fast I actually gasped out loud. Without a thought I sprinted back through the door to our main room with Skull hot on my heels. The two of us nearly collided in the doorframe then burst out and dashed to Blood''s side.


    ¡°What what!¡± I gasped. ¡°Are you ok, are you in pain, do you need...?¡±


    ¡°What? Yes of course I¡¯m ok,¡± Blood cut me off and looked at me oddly (even through the mask). ¡°It''s just there are 432 nails in the ceiling.¡±


    We looked at each other for a long silent moment then Skull spoke. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I got bored so I counted,¡± Blood said with a shrug. ¡°There are 432 nails in the ceiling, isn¡¯t that an interestingly self referential number? Each digit is 1 off from the last.¡±


    I threw a pillow at her.

 The Month of Growth - prologue

    The sun beat down on shining Prasus. I spent so much time under the light of his sisters that I sometimes forget how lovely his warmth was. The golden glow streamed across spires and rooftops, castles and halls and eventually through the tall arched windows of my bedroom. My silk drapes were angled just so, channelling the warm light onto my four poster bed and making the fine white sheets glow like noon lit sand. All in all it was a beautiful day... which was why I was simply lying in my bed enjoying the soothing silence.


    The second I got up Lydia (my ladies maid) would be in and bustling around the room, dressing me up for some event or other which I would be obliged to sleepwalk my way through. She¡¯d be telling me how many duties I had, how many audiences I must give, which lessons I must attend, how my siblings were doing, how many jobs they had, how I should help them, how many curtsies I need to drop and how much polite small talk to make. I knew that all of that was still to come so I simply lay there enjoying the warmth and quiet.


    But I knew it couldn''t last forever and even as I thought that I heard my room¡¯s door creak open and saw out of half hooded eyes a figure dressed in demure white and black with a downcast gaze enter and walk across the room to my cupboard. I expected the usual burst of chatter, the litany of appointments and commands and some interesting gossip which Lydia told me every morning but the maid was silent. In fact she even seemed hesitant to open my cupboard and she kept sneaking glances towards me in bed.


    My curiosity (a dangerously powerful part of me that contributed to my career in thievery no little bit) peaked so I made a show of groaning and shading my eyes as if the light had just woken me. After a few moments of carefully simulated awakening I slipped out of bed, my long white sleeping gown hanging around my ankles mirroring my messy curtain of silver white hair. The maid bowed (to my utter astonishment; Lydia hadn''t bowed to me since I was nine) and stiffly to like she was worried.


    ¡°I''m sorry to wake you Mistress Dutair.¡± she quavered, this wasn¡¯t Lydia, to start with they had pale skin like mine rather than Lydia¡¯s dark brown skin and they were blonde whereas Lydia has black hair also... and most notably, they were scared of me. Lydia doesn''t fear me and always spoke her mind around me as I¡¯d encouraged her to do so often over the eons, as I told the Baroness nobles should be an example not a warning[63].


    ¡°It''s ok,¡± I soothed as she grabbed the clothes and shuffled towards me with every sign of reluctance. ¡°I should have been up hours ago.¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have come in,¡± she whispered. ¡°But your father ordered me to.¡±


    Now I recognised her! She was one of the scullery maids (and a new one at that). She shouldn''t have been in the upper house at all, and she certainly shouldn''t have been dressing me, which could only mean that father had found the first female servant he could and ordered her to wake me... but why? It wasn¡¯t Lydia¡¯s day off, she should have been in the manor for hours by now.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t mind Mr. Dutair?¡± The girl quavered, She''s even younger than me I thought before nodding and raising my arms. She began to clumsily slip clothing on over my gown padding it with shawls, scarves, skirts and pantaloons in abundance.


    After a moment¡¯s awkward silence I spoke, causing her to jump slightly. ¡°It''s... Katherine, yes?¡±


    ¡°Uh... yes Mistress Dutair?¡± She seemed stunned and I remembered most of the servants only dealt with my relatives in the other wings of our mansion who treated them like ambulatory furniture.


    ¡°Where¡¯s Lydia?¡± I asked, deciding any level of subtlety would be lost on the poor girl.


    She screwed up the cloth sarong she was holding and looked up at me. She still didn¡¯t quite make eye contact though. ¡°Lyd... you know her...¡± She stopped and bowed. ¡°I''m so sorry Mistress Dutair, Miss Melton didn''t report for work today, in fact nobodies seen her since yesterday evening. Your father is furious.¡±


    ¡°Of course he is,¡± I muttered to myself, turning around on the spot so Katherine could pin my hair back. ¡°Wait... nobodies seen her? What about her brother?¡±


    I felt Katherine''s hands pause on my hair for a second again and smiled to myself. ¡°I do care about my employees Katherine.¡±


    I felt her blush. ¡°I''m so sorry mistress I didn''t mean to imply...¡±


    ¡°It''s fine, just tell me, has her brother seen her?¡± I asked, letting a little sternness into my voice, I was getting worried.


    ¡°I''m afraid not. He came round this morning asking if she was here; he said she didn''t make it home last night. Your father had him thrown out for creating a disturbance.¡±


    ¡°Has anyone told the watch?¡±


    ¡°Her brother did, they said they might be able to investigate in a month or two.¡±


    I turned back around to see Katherine bowing, ¡°It''s a real pity,¡± She said, her voice aging with sadness. ¡°If only someone could do something about it.¡± With that she scampered out her slippered feet scratching gently on the carpet as she shuffled down the corridor.


    I turned back to the window, adjusting a few pieces of improperly tied clothing as I did so. Looking out across the sunlit rooftops if I strained my eyes I could convince myself I could just about see a certain ruined district and a certain ruined house.


    ¡°Yes.... somebody should.¡± I murmured looking around for my raven.

 The Month of Growth - 2

    ¡°So we don''t know what happened?¡± Blood asked as she walked past me, her hat and cloak still gripping in her hands and a raven squawking animatedly on her shoulder.


    ¡°No I''m sorry, all we know is Lydia didn¡¯t make it home and I was told her walk home takes her through a dangerous district.¡± I wasn¡¯t idle either. Whilst Blood was still getting dressed and trying to wolf down a late dinner I had polished my new steel mace head and tucked the aether disruptor into my sleeve.


    ¡°If it''s one of the bronze districts we¡¯ll have to be careful of our actions and our reputation. They still have some level of watch presence which might have heard of us which would cause some significant difficulties if we demonstrate our magic. If it''s an iron or copper one we¡¯ll be free of any worries about the Order finding us but we¡¯ll probably be in even more danger, some of those districts are nearly war zones.¡± Skull was busy simultaneously checking maps, reading reports and stashing a plethora of small edged weaponry in various hidden pockets.


    I watched all this with a strange sense of detachment. I was nervous... really nervous not just because of the danger to Lydia although that was a part of it but mainly because I was lying to my friends. We had agreed long ago, no names no faces. So I¡¯d told them the truth and a lie; that Lydia worked as a maid for house Dutair but that I only knew her vaguely as a friend of a friend of a relative. It may have been the rules, it may have been expected, it may even have been necessary but I still hated lying to my friends.


    ¡°Good.¡± I turned to see Blood hefting a double bladed battle axe that she had produced from somewhere. ¡°I need a fight.¡±


    Skull laughed quietly and held up one of the maps. ¡°This details the likeliest route that Miss Melton took home. We¡¯ll follow it and see if we can pick up her trail.¡±


    I nodded, my movement¡¯s jerky with nerves, Blood noticed and leaning forwards hugged my right arm to her chest, ¡°Hey it''s ok Bright,¡± she said, her tone oddly serious... for her. ¡°She''s going to be fine.¡±


    ¡°No doubt about it,¡± said Skull, sounding for once like the young girl she really is. ¡°We¡¯ll find whatever bar she''s in, drag her home and be back in bed before sunrise.¡±


    Blood giggled at that and nodded. ¡°See? You don''t need to worry about a thing because your friends are here for you.¡±


    ¡°Just let us do the talking when we find her,¡± said Skull lightly. ¡°And try not to freeze.¡±


    I reached out and squeezed both their hands¡­ hard. ¡°You¡¯re the best friends I could ever have,¡± I said crying behind my mask. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    An hour later Skull''s finger jabbed the ragged paper surface of our map with an air of finality and satisfaction, ¡°this must be it! The Silver Keys district where house Dutair is based is one of the safest in the city gold ranked and all,¡± she pointed again, ¡°Judiciary Junction where Miss Melton lives is only ranked iron but it has its own civilian militia....,¡± Skull drew her finger along the map then look up at the rash of twinkling lights spread out before us. ¡°...So this is the only place left.¡±


    ¡°The docks,¡± I sighed. ¡°Of course it¡¯s the damn docks.¡± The four vast docking spurs of Prasus were some of the oldest and roughest areas of the city. Prasus is a trade city after all and trade never sleeps, ships arrive around the clock laden with exotic and expensive products from all across the known world and they need to be unloaded, repaired and resupplied. Just as their cargo needed to be evaluated, distributed and protected and their crew needed to be fed, housed, entertained and replenished. The docks have always been the heart of Prasus, where the lifeblood of the city flowed from, by their nature they were well protected but... trade breeds smuggling, smuggling feeds crime and crime spirals out of control.


    To explain the dock spurs one really needs to explain their layout first. In most cities docks simply spring up anywhere that there¡¯s open ocean. They grow slowly to meet the cities needs then basically just tick over like a guard golem on watch and that''s basically it, they never really get expanded or improved or even noticed unless there''s a really big fire or a naval invasion. But this is Prasus, the jewel of the eastern ocean! We say go big or go home.


    Each of the city''s four vast dock spurs (one for each cardinal direction) was well over a dozen miles long and incorporated four score districts or more, it would take someone hours to walk their entire length and they could accommodate a thousand ships a side without strain or crowding. Literally millions of tons of trade goods could be loaded and unloaded each day and hundreds of thousands of passengers could take ships each tide. The spurs each accommodated inns and eateries, shops and apothecaries, tailors and shipwrights, garrisons of naval troopers and berths for the Prasian Grand Navy (the largest navy on the planet). In many ways each of the four spurs was its own little city joined at the end to Prasus itself. The dock spurs were much wider where they attached to the city and grew thinner as they extended outwards until they ended with rounded ocean breaks that were constantly being moved forwards as the spurs grew to accommodate ever more docks ports and wharfs physically they make the city look rather like a giant stone octopus that had had a severe accident.


    Now being so valuable to the city you would expect the spurs to be well protected and they were... or at least the docks were protected. As I said each spur included dozens of districts and each district had a different focus. Now the ones on the seaward edges were all ports obviously and the ports where firmly under the watch¡¯s control and supervision, they were the most valuable part of the docks (and by extension the entire city) and as such a huge amount of money was invested annually in getting well trained, highly motivated and completely unbribable watchmen guarding both them and the very expensive ships in them. The problems started to crop up when you got further away from the docks and into the less profitable (and therefore less vital) regions of the city where the less skilled and less pure guardsmen were dumped. Now to be honest most managed fine, they tended to end up mildly corrupt but generally safe and profitable places to live, but a few districts fell entirely, the watch abandoning them fully (sometimes thanks to spilled coins and sometimes thanks to spilled blood) and leaving the gangs to rule there now.


    Some of the gangs weren¡¯t too bad (generally the ones made by people who grew up in the docks). They acted a bit like a cross between armed longshoremen, tax collectors and a civilian militia but the majority were ruthless and dangerous. The worst were into slave and weapon smuggling, protection rackets and drug running in a big way and some didn''t draw the line at assassination or sabotage either. In short none of them were people you wanted to run into a lone girl walking home late at night.


    Or that''s what Skull had told me.


    If I''m going to be honest I¡¯d always assumed that the docks were just well.... docks... big flat areas around ships filled with lots of muscular, loud and not particularly bright workers hauling ropes rhythmically whilst singing to make ships... work... somehow. It would probably have been quite the rude awakening for me if I had just stumbled in there obliviously but luckily Skull knew pretty much everything about Prasus, even the grubby bits and she was able to fill in the gaps in my (and as it turned out Bloods) knowledge with ease[64]. But all that still didn''t prepare us for the actual entrance.


    We were flitting from rooftop to rooftop as usual when we saw it. It stretched across the mouth of the district unmistakable even from a distance, a vast stone wall taller than any of the surrounding buildings and far newer than the district. It was topped with iron spikes the length of spears, armoured crenulations like tiny castles patrolled by archers with huge longbows of expensive imported woods. In its centre was set a single heavy portcullis with practically oozed menace guarded on our side by ten citywatch troopers who stood with swords already drawn. On the other side we could see¡­ nothing save darkness, rubble, crude graffiti and drifts of rotting festering rubbish.


    We landed softly on the smooth red rooftop of one of the outer houses of the district just beyond the wall. Sitting up there above the street I remember the soft light of the two sisters, the distant overlapping sounds of talking that echoed through the still night air and I remember the stink. The docks reeked of fish and salt, rust and stone, dust and more abstractly of decay and despair. Landing in an alley next to a wall half covered with fetid green mould, we gingerly crunched our way across pools of broken glass and huddled under an overhang.


    ¡°So this is the docks?¡± said Blood, still unable to bear the sound of silence. ¡°...It sucks.¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t... very nice.¡± I agreed. The understatement of the century obviously but at that point in my life I was still bound consciously or subconsciously by a lot of noble etiquette that I have since joyfully discarded.


    ¡°This is even worse than I thought,¡± said Skull to my utter astonishment, it must have shown because she shrugged. ¡°What? I have agents in the docks. I don''t come down here myself... This place is disgusting.¡±


    I looked around at the cold gloom hung with greasy fog and I shuddered. ¡°I quite agree. Let¡¯s not stay any longer than we have to, which way did Lydia go?¡±


    Skull looked down at her map, then held it up, then spun around on the spot. ¡°I can''t quite see the ma...¡± Before she finished speaking light exploded into existence with that sucking rushing sound fire makes when it flares. Turning we saw Blood stood behind us, her upraised hand engulfed in crimson flame. She nodded at us and essayed a mocking wave[65] as she spoke, ¡°in your own time ladies.¡±


    Skull tutted slightly but quickly doubled over the map again. ¡°About three districts seawards is the Trade Winds District which according to her brother is the first dock district she goes through on her route home[66]. That¡¯s the best place to try and pick up a trail.¡±


    ¡°Right, let''s climb.¡± I matched my words to actions and levelled my mace at the rooftop then fired my grapnel. I had gotten pretty good with it and now it hardly ever got stuck on statuary. A moment later Skull drew a set of climbing spikes from her pockets and began to quickly scale the wall behind me. Blood for her part just signed at the both of us and ran straight up the brickwork as easily as I can run along a street.


    I had started to feel noticeably safer on rooftops (and still do to this day) so I stopped on the lip of the new building to take a deep calming breath. The air up there was much nicer than in the alley away from the stinking rubbish and rotten wood, it was cold and crisp and had a reassuringly familiar tang of salt on the breeze (obviously all Prasus air is sea air but some is more sea-y) as I stood still there for a moment I tried desperately to steady my nerves. As I was doing this Blood appeared next to me in the soundless way she does (she''s a lot like a cat in that regard one second she''s not there and then *bam* she''s judging you...).This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    ¡°How are you doing Bright?¡±Asked Blood, looking at me with a strange tilt to her mask.


    ¡°I''m... I''m fine.¡± I lied, in truth I was worried, I was worried about Lydia, about my friends, about wandering around the disgusting, dark docks at night. I mean for Koth''s sake I¡¯m a damn noblewoman! For a second I questioned why I was even there.


    Blood looked at me for a long moment and I got the disturbing feeling she was seeing everything I was thinking and the even more disturbing feeling that the reason she could was because she¡¯d thought it once herself, ¡°we¡¯re here for you Bright,¡± she said quietly. ¡°And we always will be.¡±


    ¡°That''s right,¡± said Skull, her hand dropping onto my shoulder. ¡°We¡¯re a team.¡±


    I smiled down at my chest that''s why I thought as I nodded at the two of them. ¡°Right, sorry it''s just...¡±


    ¡°This is a depressing place we get it,¡± said Blood gesturing. ¡°Now let¡¯s find Trade Winds.¡±


    It didn''t take us long since we were moving as the crow flew (sometimes literally). It was a relatively large district covering a few dry docks and some huge warehouses as well as a great number of normal homes and a few service buildings (like inns... mainly inns actually). Unfortunately we did know where in the district Lydia might be. Her brother had only been able to tell us the district names that she had to pass through, not the street numbers, so we made up for lack of knowledge with sheer speed.


    Under the moonlight we skimmed from rooftop to rooftop as fast as we could. We peered down alleys, checked gutters and ditches, threw bricks at piles of refuse, darted over the deep canals and sent flocks of ravens scouting ahead as we combed over what seemed like the entire sleeping city.


    In the end it was Skull who found it (not much of a surprise there). At the time we were standing on the rooftop of an old smeltery, its huge furnaces long dead and cold, its valuable ore sold or stolen, the smelter¡¯s roof was unusually high for Prasian architecture (to accommodate the vast slag pots below it) so we were using it as a lookout point to plan our next move. I think I was facing west but I''m not entirely sure. What I do remember is a hiss of indrawn breath from Skull that got the both of us spinning to face her.


    She scrambled down the walls like a spider and dashed along the ground to stand next to the overflowing gutters below us (I climbed down at a more sedate pace behind her, Blood literally just stepped off the roof and worried about the ground when it met her... somehow that works for her). As we approached we saw Skull draw her sabre and, using its point, push aside a mound of filth and detritus. Half buried underneath was a scarf; long and light yellow with orange thread edging. She held it up draped over her blade.


    ¡°A lace knitted scarf of Agoritian breed wool if I''m any judge. They¡¯re a fairly rare primitive sheep breed that lives only on a few of the eastern islands and that thread''s orange dyed, not natural. This is not something people in this district could afford.¡±


    Me and Blood both boggled at her... before then I¡¯d never boggled at someone but it just comes to you when you need it.


    ¡°You saw that from the top of a building?¡± I was amazed.


    ¡°You can seriously tell that a dropped scarf you saw from a ROOFTOP is a rare sheep breed?¡± Blood said with a mixture of pity and awe in her voice.


    Skull shrugged but I could feel the pride boiling off her, she had a right to it after all. ¡°It''s just something I picked up.¡± She replied modestly.


    I nodded but stayed silent, taking the scarf from her and balling it up in my hands as Blood and Skull went to work searching the alley. Blood squatted down on her haunches and ran a finger through the oily mud on the floor, Skull leaned towards a wall and, pulling a small magnifier from a pocket, began to scrutinise it intently. After a minute of silence they both stopped as one and looked at each other.


    ¡°She was running,¡± said Blood looking up at the fog. ¡°And chased.¡±


    ¡°She hit this wall and pushed off of it,¡± Skull gestured at a tiny mark. ¡°Nail polish.¡± She added by way of explanation.


    I nodded at them, setting my hidden face and trying to still my suddenly hammering heart. ¡°Right... So which way do we go... what do we do?¡±


    Skull pointed down the street. ¡°Her trail goes west...¡±


    ¡°Quickly then!¡± interrupted Blood. ¡°Let¡¯s get going!¡± and without further ado she quickly married word to action and launched herself forwards and up a wall, Skull and I exchanged long suffering looks before also springing into motion. To her credit Blood was waiting for us when we reached the top of the building.


    I don''t remember the run, honestly I don''t, I was panicking and tired and desperately trying not to think about all those dark thoughts that were bobbing in my head. All I do remember is Blood''s hand. When I landed on that roof next to her she took my hand and hauled me along behind her like a child dragging their friend out to play. For a few minutes of memories that''s all I remember her reassuring warmth and the wind pulling icy fingers through my hair, then reality and memory snap together as Skull leaps.


    She had been keeping a close eye on the road below us, I think she was following some sort of tracks (I am a spoiled pampered noblewomen remember I literally could not see anything... well I could see grime, dirt and scum obviously but nothing useful). When suddenly she stopped dead and leapt from the rooftop her climbing claws screaming as she skidded down the brickwork.


    I followed Skull down the smart way whilst Blood again just flung herself off but this time she landed in a pile of rubbish and had to spend a minute or two hopping around and swearing whilst kicking bits of filth off her boots. I saw Skull vanish into an alley and tried to follow her but I could barely walk, my lungs felt like they were on fire.


    For a while I just stood there with my hands on my knees as Blood (sword out and shining) walked past me and followed Skull into the alley. I heard a few muffled words being exchanged then they both walked out Skull drawing her sabre again.


    ¡°Skull what¡¯s going on did you...?¡± I tried to stumble forwards into the alley but as I went to move Blood reappeared and bared my path with an outstretched arm.


    ¡°You should stay there. Bright I''m perfect but you don''t like the sight of blood.¡±


    I nearly fainted, sickness rose into my mouth and my vision seemed to fade. ¡°She''s... you mean...¡±


    Blood spun around and grabbed my hand, the effect was incredible, the whole world seemed to snap back into focus the second her gloved fingers touched mine. ¡°No No No! I''m so sorry I just thought it sounded cool and I was worried you¡¯d throw up... no she''s not dead. I think she''s been injured but that''s it.¡±


    I smiled invisibly down at Blood and then leaning forwards rested my forehead against hers and looked into her eye(sockets). ¡°It¡¯s ok let me see.¡±


    The younger girl blushed (I could feel it don''t question me) and stepped back letting me into the alley. At the far end the wall was stained at about stomach height with blood a large red smear of the stuff that ran downwards. That alone wasn''t too bad but the floor... The floor was awash with an ocean of barely dry blood, like a vast crimson sea.


    ¡°By Koth!¡± I sobbed looking down at the pool, there was no way a human could lose that much blood and survive.


    Blood looked at me, then down, then up, then she slapped a palm into her forehead. ¡°Oh of course I forgot, you stupid half blind monkeys, that isn¡¯t her blood.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I muttered hope rising.


    Blood pointed. ¡°The stuff on the wall is hers but it¡¯s only about a pint, you can survive that... by the Abyss I¡¯ve lost that much blood just blasting doors down before. The stuff on the floor is from about twenty different people, at least five of them not walking away from the fight,¡± she stopped and shook her head as if to clear it, ¡°and there¡¯s something else in their blood it''s... tainted?¡± she bent down and ran a finger through the dried flakes then raised it to her mask and sniffed. ¡°Not all of them, just the five that bled the most their bloods wrong... it''s messed up somehow.¡±


    ¡°How do you mean messed up?¡± Skull suddenly spoke, the eagerness in her voice bordering on childlike. ¡°Can you detect that magically, is it passive or active, does it drain you in any way?¡± Skull was obsessed with magic and understanding it. She was an intelligencer after all, gaining knowledge was her job, but her obsession with magic was something else entirely, she had nearly squealed with delight[67] when she found out both me and Blood were mages. Honestly she never went more than a day without creating some kind of experiment or asking us to do some kind of test to figure out how we worked and she pouted if we didn''t want to take part. I wish I could see her childlike side more often though it¡¯s really cute[68].


    Blood blushed (like I said before don''t question me on this I can just tell with her, it¡¯s a best friend thing) and grasped her hands behind her back. Little hellion she may be but she could be surprisingly shy at times. ¡°Uh... it''s not... I mean it''s not actually my...¡±


    ¡°Can you control the blood in any way, what about if it wasn''t dried?¡± Babbled Skull as she loomed over Blood. ¡°I¡¯ve always wondered if you could actively control blood in another person¡¯s body, how about using someone else¡¯s blood to fuel your fire attacks. If that worked we could...¡±


    Inside me something snapped. ¡°QUIET!¡± I yelled sharply. The other two fell silent instantly[69] and shuffled their feet.


    ¡°Sorry, Bright,¡± said Skull. ¡°I shouldn''t have lost focus.¡±


    ¡°Sorry Bight.¡± Whispered Blood not looking up.


    I took a deep breath and felt myself blushing hotly. Right, a sarcastic voice spoke in my head, snap at your best friends because that''s going to help the situation you idiot. ¡°I''m so sorry guys,¡± I said, sketching a sort of shaky half bow at them. ¡°I shouldn''t have lost my composure. I know you¡¯re doing all you can to help, I''m so sorry. Is there anything you can do to find her? Either of you?¡±


    Skull looked around and shook her head but Blood nodded. ¡°I can track her.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I gasped, hope surging again. ¡°You¡¯re sure?¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± answered Blood, her old swagger back already, ¡°I¡¯m perfect after all. This was only a few hours ago and it¡¯s not like it¡¯s rained.¡± She gestured up at the sky then looked down thoughtfully. ¡°And she would have been bleeding heavily wherever she went... or was taken. Regardless, I can follow the scent of her blood no problem.¡±


    ¡°The scent...¡± Skull began to ask before she stopped herself and nodded. ¡°Ok good idea, get going.¡±


    Blood walked into the alley then stopped and turned to look at us. ¡°I''m going to need to get a good breath, turn around please.¡±


    Skull and I looked at each other in that blood soaked alley, the request seemed like the least strange part of our evening so far. We both turned around and stared out across the desolate dull main street then we heard a sound which caused us both to stiffen involuntarily, the familiar symphony of porcelain sliding across skin. We both knew that sound very well. We heard it every time we went home after all.


    She''s taking off her mask I thought with shocked disbelief. For a second all I wanted in the world was to turn, to see who my best friend really was but I knew she wouldn''t want that. So I pushed the thoughts away with difficulty and reined in my (as mentioned) nearly insatiable curiosity. Next to me I assumed that Skull was fighting the same internal battle[70]. After a few seconds we heard a number of deep ragged breaths then the scraping sound again but this time half way through was a dull clatter like someone dropping a large bone onto the floor and a mutter of ¡°bugger¡± from Blood followed by another minute or so of scraping noises, then I felt a hand land on my shoulder.


    ¡°Thank you for waiting,¡± said Blood, her mask firmly back in place. ¡°I¡¯ve got the scent, let''s go.¡± And without a further word she was off. This time Skull kept pace with me as Blood led the way. The red girl was already a full street length ahead of us when she hit a wall and just ran up it. By the time the two of us had messed around with grapnels and climbing gear she had built up a commanding lead across the rooftops, in fact we only caught up with her when she stopped.

 The Month of Growth - 3

    We were on another desolate rooftop when we saw her, standing perfectly still on the very lip of the rooftop. Her crimson figure cut a bloody slash in the night as starlight struck off her, Panting and exhausted Skull and I stumbled across the roof to her and stood by her side looking out over the city.


    The building we were standing on bordered onto one of Prasus¡¯ main waterways, a huge concourse that swept through the city and was used to move heavy freight quickly. In the centre of the tamed river was a small island linked by thin bridges to the land and sat upon it (nearly covering it completely) was a tiny warehouse. Even the smallest islands in and around Prasus cost more than a fortune to buy meaning this warehouse must belong to a private investor of significant means but... well it really didn''t look like it. If I''m going to be honest, the place was a tip. The buildings were dilapidated, the grounds were filled with rusted crates and scrap and the perimeter security fence had once been far more secure before some had ripped several huge chunks out and covered the entire thing in graffiti. Behind this patchwork wall I could see fires flickering as people walked in front of the light.


    ¡°She''s in there,¡± Blood said without preamble. ¡°...Somewhere... not sure exactly where but she''s in that building at least. The winds picked up so I couldn''t get a good look but everyone who bled in that alley came this way.¡±


    ¡°What happened to the dead ones?¡± Skull asked.


    Blood shrugged. ¡°The bad blooded ones were moved this way but then they went left and into the river rather than across the bridge. I assume they were dumped.¡±


    I looked down at the turbulent waters then up at the compound before us. I was sure that it was the diabolical fortress lair of some vicious gang filled with monsters and murders who had done Koth knows what to my friend and who needed to be beaten down, of course as things turned out I couldn¡¯t have been more wrong if I¡¯d said it was home to a race of carrot people but there you go.


    ¡°We need to get in there,¡± I said, making sure to keep my voice still with all the willpower my noble blood gave me. ¡°We need to find her.¡±


    ¡°The roofs nearly touch over there,¡± said Blood pointing with one hand and loosening a rapier in its sheath with the other. ¡°And there are only two guards I can see.¡±


    Skull nodded. ¡°Whatever gang owns this warehouse isn''t expecting trouble or at least not from an intelligent opponent. I can see thirteen different points of entry from here alone.¡±


    ¡°The walls don''t look that tough; I bet I could smash one right down,¡± said Blood looking around at me (once upon a time I might have thought she was joking). ¡°You¡¯re the one who knows her Bright, how do you want to play this?¡±


    I looked at them in that deep dark night and, even after all these years, I still remember that moment of lightness. My mother always says a trouble shared is a trouble halved and my friends have always been there to share my troubles. ¡°We can''t leave her there any longer than absolutely necessary. I say we go over the rooftop and take out their sentries.¡±


    My two friends both nodded at that and we slunk along towards the nearly conjoined rooftops. Our crossing point was an old burned out shop; a jaunty sign still protruded from its wall proclaiming it to be ¡°The Seven Seas Boutique¡± but most of the paint had rotted off so what was left looked like it spelt out ¡°He severs boot¡±. All humour aside the sign was metal reinforced and a good three metres long jutting out like a ramp over the canal towards the little warehouse island so I could see exactly what Blood had in mind here, I just didn''t like it very much.


    ¡°You think that can hold our weight?¡± I asked her incredulously. Blood obviously didn''t need to worry, weighing less than a child (which is so unfair considering how much she eats) but I was less confident.


    Blood just head tilted towards me radiating a grin, ¡°what¡¯s the matter Bright?¡± She mocked. ¡°Never lived on the edge before?¡± And with that she was gone flying across the tiles, along the wood, off metal and into the air. She landed with a dull thump and rolled between the two napping sentries on the warehouse''s roof. One awoke, started and staggered backwards trying to run but Blood shot out an arm, grabbed him by the throat and slammed his head into the roof making a sound like a coconut being dropped from a fifth story window. The second sentry was still fumbling to draw his sword as Skull (hot on Blood''s heels) landed behind him. I''m not entirely sure to this day what she did to him since I was crossing the precarious sign ¡°bridge¡± as it happened (and was mostly focused on not going splat) all I remember is a strange high pitched squeal and a sound like someone tenderizing steak. By the time I was finally safe on solid ground again all I saw was Blood stalking away over the rooftops and Skull stood over a balled up figure that was clutching at itself and mewling in agony. I looked down at the poor man and then up at her but she just laughed softly and turned to follow Blood[71].


    The roof was studded with skylights and Blood was dashing from one to the next. I''m not sure if she was sniffing them or just looking through them but either way after a minute''s frantic searching she stopped dead at the edge of one of the pools of light like a bloodhound outside a fox den.


    Skull and I ran over to her as quickly and quietly as we could, sticking to the darker shadows and avoiding the rooftops'' few ceramic plates[72] and landed next to her in the lee of a piece of crumbling metal railing[73] and looked down into the evil gangs sinister base.


    It was a bit of a letdown, especially after the horrific spectacles my mind had conjured up. I saw Lydia... lying back in a rather comfortable looking bed with fluffy pillows in a wide well lit room. She wasn¡¯t guarded or tied up. The door wasn''t barred, chained or even visibly locked. The nearest to sinister the room came was a large bookcase covered in specimen jars but no books which were instead in a tottering stack on the bedside table (I mean honestly who does that?! I know some nobles have too many bookcases but if you¡¯ve got one at least use it!). In one corner was a large potted plant and in the other (rather incongruously) sat a very large hat stand with griffon feet. Set in the wall over her bed was a window that had been covered with a thin sheet of black oil paper presumably against a leak (our cleaning staff use the same trick before getting a glazier in) the only truly odd thing about the room was that it seemed to have been carpeted with ropes instead of actual carpet, hundreds of uncoiled ropes all laying next to one another.


    After a moment of incongruous disappointment at the lack of menace I turned my full attention to Lydia. I could see she was still alive of course, she was breathing, but her breaths were shallow and she was deathly pale. Her eyes were closed and she would have looked like she was sleeping an untroubled sleep but her arms and shoulders were visible above the bed sheet and they were nearly mummified with bandages.


    I quickly flipped my mace and began to fiddle with the skylights lock. Less than a second later it swung open and one by one we silently fell into the room below.


    Skull landed first and rushed over to Lydia as Blood thudded down and prowled over to the door. I scrambled after them (with rather less grace) and walked over to my maid looking down at her sallow form. We had never been what you could call close, I knew her name and a few facts about her family and she knew not to fear speaking her mind near me but we probably spoke less than a hundred words a cycle to each other that weren¡¯t ¡°Here are your duties today ma¡¯am¡± ¡°Thank you Lydia¡± Repeated ad nauseam. But she was a servant of my family which meant her well being was my concern, seeing her like this hurt my pride and heart.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°What happened?¡± I whispered to Skull as the tall girl lifted one of Lydia¡¯s eyelids. To my astonishment the girl didn''t stir, not even when Skull lifted the bed sheet peered underneath and whistled low under her breath.


    ¡°Well Bright I¡¯d say she''s been stabbed five or six times,¡± Skull gestured around the room, ¡°and oddly enough is being healed very professionally. Her wounds are stitched and cleaned. She''s been well bandaged, this is obviously some kind of infirmary and...¡± she lifted one of Lydia¡¯s hands then let it fall back onto the bed with a dull thump. ¡°She''s been ethered out of her mind so she won¡¯t notice the pain... It''s really strange.¡±


    I looked around at the oddly clean and tidy room, up at the skylight, down at Lydia. ¡°Why would they do that?¡± I managed half stuttering as I desperately tried to think.


    Skull shrugged. ¡°Looking to gain a hostage perhaps? They can''t ransom her back if she''s dead after all or maybe...¡±


    Suddenly a heavy knocking echoed around the room causing the three of us to jump.


    ¡°Hello?¡± A male voice said with an oddly amused air. ¡°Look we know you¡¯re in there, how about you come out before we come in ok? It would be a lot easier for all concerned¡±


    I looked at Skull panic gripping my heart. ¡°Can we move her?¡±


    Skull shook her head. ¡°We shouldn''t, she''s been badly injured so she should stay as still as possible.¡±


    ¡°Yeah I know but we¡¯ve run out of time we need to move!¡±


    Skull shook her head. ¡°She¡¯ll die if we move her...¡± she paused and looked at me then lowered her voice. ¡°She¡¯d die if we weren¡¯t with a life mage. Can you keep your magic up for the whole way back without anyone noticing?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Definitely¡± I lied. I knew I couldn¡¯t (either keep it up OR keep it up subtly) but trying was better than the alternative... at least it seemed like that at the time and what do you expect? I was working with what I¡¯d got you know.


    ¡°Look we don''t want any unpleasantness,¡± crowed the voice again. ¡°Just give up ok? You are in our base after all, you''re kinda hilarious outnumbered.¡±


    ¡°I could blast a hole in the wall,¡± suggests Blood who, half forgotten by me, was eyeing the door almost hungrily and stroking the handles of her rapiers. ¡°Or we could just leave again? She doesn''t really seem to be in trouble[74].¡±


    I glared at Blood as Skull calmly shook her head. ¡°If you blow open a wall we¡¯re going to have much bigger problems to deal with than a gangster.¡± She said ignoring Blood''s other suggestion.


    ¡°Right...,¡± the voice outside said, followed by the sound of a sword being unsheathed. ¡°We¡¯re coming in then.¡±


    I grabbed at Lydia¡¯s shoulder as the door slammed open beyond which a half-seen fire lit figures loomed and moved with deadly purpose. For a moment I thought my heart was going to stop in my chest, I thought this was going to be the end.


    But I had forgotten exactly who I had on my side, as I readied my mace and tried to look fierce Blood... well... happened to them.


    The first man to enter was carrying a long hooked blade with the assured grip of a professional swordsman. He was punched so hard in the stomach I heard his ribs crack even as he catapulted back out into the corridor.


    The second managed a swing with a billhook before Blood caught and broke it. The blunt end she launched into his throat and the sharp one pinned his foot to the floor.


    The third, now slightly forewarned, entered with a barrage of sword strokes. Blood knocked his blade away with the back of her hand then seized him by the throat and lifted him bodily from the floor with one hand. Before I could do more than marvel at this feat of strength she spun on her heel and hurled him away across the room. He bounced off the wall to my left with an agonised cry and landed head first in the chamber pot with a ringing porcelain hum[75].


    The fourth, fifth and six entered together now far more forewarned of the threat we posed. The fourth criminal was a tall woman covered in tattoos who charged at me with a club. Skull spun forward from beside the bed and bisected the club neatly with a single sword stroke then, using the spin of her motion, planted a boot in the gangster''s stomach that left her gasping on the floor. A heartbeat later a swift kick to the temples sent her right to sleep.


    The fifth criminal aimed a huge spiked maul at Skull as she finished her pirouette and I found myself stepping forwards instinctively. I knew I wasn¡¯t a good fighter but I also knew I was going to protect my only two friends in the world no matter what. My mace slammed into his wrist causing him to drop the huge maul on his toes. As he threw his head back and howled I slammed my mace into his gut and laid him out on the floor.


    The sixth man entered with a swagger that didn''t diminish even upon seeing his defeated friends lying around the room. This could have had something to do with the huge oak crossbow he was holding, ¡°ok,¡± he said in a familiar cocky voice. ¡°That''s enough of that.¡±


    Blood looked at him then down at the bow then laughed. ¡°Really? That''s what you''re threatening me with?¡± She asked in a voice as sweet as sin and as soft as silk. I¡®d learned to dread it when she started speaking like that.


    The man levelled the crossbow at her head and smiled widely. ¡°Yeah I am so drop the weapons all of you I''m a good shot with this thing.¡±


    ¡°And I''m perfect.¡± Blood snarled and leapt forwards. The sharp crack of the bowstring was indescribably loud in the silent room as I stood transfixed watching an arrow shoot towards my best friend¡¯s heart and then... I can''t do justice to what happened next, I really can''t.


    I¡¯ve always known Blood was fast, faster than a normal person could ever be but, as it turns out, I¡¯d never seen her go half as fast as she could. As the bolt left the bow Blood seemed to distort with speed until she was nothing but a crimson blur. It was... Look, do you have cats? My family has several and you know how cats just vanish if you knock a book off a table or drop a glass right, how they move so fast they seem to disappear? That''s how Blood moved, one second she stood beside me and the next she was a dozen steps away across the room holding between two fingers the crossbow bolt.


    Blood looked across at the man for a moment, I got the distinct impression she winked even through her mask, then she spun the bolt in her grip and hurled it into the man¡¯s shoulder so hard that it pinned him to the wall. He crumpled against the stone with a high pitched yowl of agony and Blood turned to preen at us.


    I started to open my mouth... I wasn''t sure whether I was going to yell at her for her recklessness in charging a man armed with a crossbow[76], if I was to praise her for her incredible catch or if I was just going to break down crying in relief at the fact she was still alive. Of course as it turned out I never got the chance to do any of these as another figure appeared in the doorway.


    She was tall, much taller even than Skull but unlike my black clad friend she had a humorous glint in her eyes... and also unlike Skull those eyes were the size of my fist and as black as the ocean depths. For a moment I felt my jaw drop open. She was a half-Ladorian[77]. I mean I could see all the signs from the abyssal black eyes to the long finned tail, the thick grey rubbery skin and the scalp covered in rows of long grey spines in geometric lines rather than hair (Later when I saw her smile her mouth was filled with huge tombstone like white teeth, no canines at all). All the signs but one which was that she didn''t seem to have that air of anger and vicious bitterness that I associated with the few half-breeds I¡¯d seen who¡¯d grown up in Prasus.


    At that moment however I was more focused on what she was wearing. It looked mostly like a male dock workers outfit, tight breeches of brown leather and a loose white cotton shirt. But hers had been modified with coils and coils of rope criss-crossing her chest through which was threaded enough daggers to make falling over an extreme sport. This entire ensemble was topped off with a sort of half mask[78] that covered her nose and mouth and also seemed to be made from coils of somewhat thinner rope.


    The girl looked across the room at us, then at the man stuck to the wall, us, man, us, man. Then finally she shook her head and reaching up pulled her bandana down.


    I tightened my grip on my mace.


    ¡°That...¡± she said in a voice somehow both mature and childlike. ¡°Was AWESOME!¡±


    Words failed me.

 Month of Growth - 4

    It was now several minutes later and we were perched on some very comfortable chairs with that same vibe of ¡°some noble houses are missing seats¡± look that our hideout had as well. Steaming cups of quite pleasant tea were sitting on our laps and we were being monologued to by an extremely old and very possibly insane man who had been introduced to us simply as ¡°The Physician.¡±


    ¡°And of course by smearing the affected area with alcohol one kills the tiny invisible biting demons that usually cause gangrene and flesh rot. My revolutionary process holds the key to the future of medicine in our humble world and if those FOOLS in the house of bottles can''t see it... can only continue to prattle about on the job drunkenness and severe paranoia then they will rue the day when I...¡±


    ¡°Oh give it a rest Phys,¡± cut in the tall half-breed girl who was currently lounging against the wall. She pushed off with her tail and walked over to us and squatted down on her haunches just in front of my chair, ¡°what he means is you don''t need to worry she''s going to be fine,¡± she said smiling up at me. Her voice was a husky contralto with a pleasing edge of bur that seemed to warm the air when she spoke. ¡°Your friend is gonna make it.¡±


    I lurched back slightly and stared at her. ¡°How did you...¡±


    ¡°Because you¡¯re shaking like a cart spring cutie,¡± grinned the girl. ¡°Doesn''t take much brains to realise who¡¯s got a horse in this race, tall black seems suspicious of us, little red looks bored, but you¡¯re worried sick I can see... but you can relax now Phys is weird as the Abyss but he''s pretty smart all in all.¡±


    ¡°I am not simply smart... I am a genius!¡± Proclaimed the Physician stalking away across the floor. ¡°The girl will be fine within the day! Her stab wounds were light and not overly numerous. Luckily for her they missed the femoral artery clusters and her gargoyle bone organ and...¡±


    As he started to explain Lydia¡¯s wounds using words I am certain to this day he was making up on the spot the half-breed girl smiled at us again. ¡°See? It¡¯s all cool little cutie she''s gonna be A-ok.¡±


    I took a few deep breaths then nodded at her. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Oh forget about it,¡± said the woman who had been introduced as Ara, just Ara nothing else[79] (I had already told her our codenames by this point but she seemed to prefer to make up her own nicknames for us). ¡°And no reason to be so formal you little sweetie you.¡±


    Without warning she leapt forwards and hugged me with (obviously) inhuman strength, it was like being crushed by a warm building but in a very pleasant way. Then just as suddenly she burst away from me and tackled Blood who squealed and froze stock still trembling slightly. ¡°Don''t think I don''t see that jealous look even with that mask on,¡± Ara crooned stroking Blood''s porcelain covered chin. ¡°Here are lots of hugs for you too.¡±


    I watched in astonishment as a girl I had seen catch a crossbow bolt out of the air and cut a war golem in half folded like damp paper under the barrage of pats and cooing. For a good half minute me and Skull simply stared (with surprise and amusement respectively) as Blood was thoroughly hugged, then the Physician cut in. ¡°Ara leave the girl alone, you mustn¡¯t be so over friendly with people.¡±


    Ara sighed and stuck her tongue out at him but let go of Blood and smiled at her. ¡°You¡¯re very cute, you know? Never let anyone tell you otherwise.¡±


    As Blood fled with an undignified squeal to hide behind my shoulder, Skull looked at the Physician. ¡°Uh... Since we are no longer fighting one another would you mind telling me who attacked Lydia?¡±


    The Physician turned to look at us for a moment then gestured at the grey girl. ¡°Ara is the one who led the counter-attack that saved your friend, who is apparently called Lydia. Ask her about it, not me.¡±


    Ara shrugged, ¡°I did what I could.¡± she replied modestly. ¡°As for who did it, that would be the Crawlers.¡±


    ¡°Crawlers?¡± I remember thinking at the time that the name sounded silly. Blood very vocally concurred.


    ¡°By Koth that sounds dumb,¡± Blood actually seemed disappointed. ¡°I had hoped they would be like... I don''t like The Slaughterhouse Crew or The Crimson Cleavers or something a bit more....¡±


    Ara laughed. ¡°Not that intimidating is it? But... these guys are nasty like stab lone housemaids in alleys nasty.¡±


    ¡°I thought that was the sort of thing dock gang¡¯s did.¡± Skull said not quite accusatory but only a breath away. For her part Ara didn''t seem to care, only smiling with what looked like genuine amusement at Skull.


    ¡°That¡¯s what people are told about us but to be honest the docks are usually just like any other district. After all, people can''t trade if they''re getting stabbed or robbed every three steps.¡± Ara seemed slightly more serious as she said that, her tail sweeping back and forth across the rope woven floor agitatedly (the first sweeping it had had in a long time I¡¯d say). ¡°Even in the low copper or stone districts the gang¡¯s patrol and keep unaligned crime down, levy taxes, control territory... everything the watch usually does. Only difference is they¡¯re more honest about being on the take.¡±Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    ¡°So the Crawlers aren¡¯t like that?¡± I asked, getting a smile from the older girl.


    ¡°Right you are honey the Crawlers are... unpleasant to say the least.¡±


    Skull shook her head slowly and looked around the room, ¡°I thought my rats down here had been quiet,¡± she murmured. ¡°This is... alarming.¡±


    ¡°Don''t worry tall, dark and cutieful,¡± winked Ara. ¡°I¡¯ll keep you safe.¡±


    Skull looked extremely taken aback by that causing me to giggle slightly. As Ara turned to grin at me I finally remembered something. ¡°Thank you Ara... for saving Lydia I mean.¡±


    ¡°Eh it¡¯s fine,¡± said Ara, waving the compliment away. ¡°She''s safe here until she recovers and this place is... like the only place that¡¯s safe from the Crawlers in this district. You three can just stick around here till then.¡±


    As we were talking the Physician had moved over to Lydia and started dripping the contents of a small jar onto her shoulder. As we spoke however he stopped and looked at the jar, then the girl, the jar, the girl and then turned away with a flourish, ¡°I need more compound of silfium synofliade,¡± he exclaimed to the air in general. ¡°We need to get moving!¡±


    He then twirled the strange white coat he was wearing around himself and stalked out of the door without another word. After a few moments he re-entered, walked across the room and stalked out of the other door.


    Ara turned to us and gestured. ¡°You girls wanna come with? Phys needs some more medicine for Lydia and we can go have a bite at this little cafe I know on Wave-Break lane whilst Phys is negotiating... and it''s right next to the gallows so if he gets caught negotiating we can spring him easily.¡±


    I stood up and smiled (invisibly) at the cheerful half-breed. ¡°I¡¯d be happy to.¡±


    ¡°Awesome.¡± Said Blood sounding genuinely excited, Skull for her part just nodded solemnly.


    Ara reached out and grabbed a coat from the wall, slinging it over her collection of knives. ¡°Great! You all look like you need feeding up a bit so I¡¯ll treat you.¡±


    ¡°Uh... if you¡¯re sure?¡± I asked following her out the door.


    She nodded. ¡°Of course, come on, we can chat and I¡¯ll get you all something sweet.¡±


    Blood perked up considerably. ¡°That sounds great!¡± I have always known Blood has a child¡¯s sweet tooth. The easiest way to get her to do anything is to bribe her with cake.


    ¡°Won¡¯t this cafe consider us rather odd?¡± Skull asked (which I had been thinking but was too embarrassed to ask). ¡°I mean the three of us are in coloured coded costumes with full face masks and we¡¯re all armed.¡±


    ¡°Oh don''t worry about that,¡± said Ara loftily. ¡°It''s very discreet and they know me, it''ll all be good.¡±


    ¡°Well... Thank you then.¡± I wondered just who we had met this time.


    ¡°It''s just this way.¡± Said Ara a few minutes later leading out a little convoy of peculiarity down a dingy street. The Physician had split off from us earlier mumbling about ¡°Fools of foolishness and foolery¡± And ¡°How many copper Lire will that idiot want for a silver plated theoretic bell jar?¡± and other arcane or insane expressions. With him it was honestly impossible to tell which was which.


    Ara had led us away from the lines of stalls he headed towards and down into a side alley that was half lost in the smoke pall of a nearby manufactory.


    ¡°Have you guys ever been here before?¡± asked Ara, waving at a store holder who to my astonishment waved back cheerfully[80].


    ¡°Uh no.¡± I said truthfully, noblewomen were not encouraged to walk around dock districts at the best of times which was with a full entourage of chaperones and their parents in tow, with only two friends and an actual smuggler? ¡°I tend to spend most of my time around the diamond districts so I rarely come down to... is this iron rated?¡±


    ¡°Nah its stone,¡± Said Ara cheerfully then pointed at another alley mouth. ¡°Down through this and then we turn...¡±


    Skull was the first to recover. ¡°STONE! What do you mean stone! How are you so casual about that?!¡±


    For non-Prasian¡¯s benefit I will elaborate here. All of the districts in Prasus are security rated as part of the deal the arch-dodge made to hire private security for his city, a system that determines the relative safety of those who live in each. There are numerous different factors that combine to decide the final score, how many watchmen are assigned to a district, how potent are the security systems installed around it, the quality of the various gates, the quality of any personal security forces within it, number of respectable jobs, number of nobles etc.


    It¡¯s a rather vague system and it is sometimes off by a grade or two but overall it¡¯s actually pretty accurate. The districts are ranked from diamond (technically actually from platinum but only the Arch-Doges palace is platinum rated) as the safest districts all the way to bronze as the most dangerous.


    However there is another ranking below even that, which is stone, listed in the Arch-Doges official Travellers Guide to Prasus as ¡°District was deemed too dangerous for a watch presence and unfit for human inhabitation¡±. A stone district was one that was entirely abandoned by the powers that be, every service suspended from the watch, to sewage and had been left to rot and riot. Usually they were only declared stone temporarily, generally after a small rebellion or such, then the Arch-Doges pyre-guards[81] would cordon the area off and starve it into surrender, then they¡¯d go in kill the ring leaders and deliver alms to all the starving families whilst posing for the broadsheets when the reporters turned up.


    Stone districts were places of anarchy, terror and deprivation. The death toll could reach thousands and the damage to the area would be so severe that it could take decades to repair... if you could even find anyone brave enough to attempt the repair work. Ara has essentially just told us we were wandering through a combination of an active war zone, a ticksteel manufactory mid meltdown and the Abyss itself.


    I looked around at the people bustling up and down the street behind us. They looked slightly furtive and more alert than normal but they smiled at one another and at Ara, they paused to inspect market stalls, they waved at old friends. From where I was standing it didn''t look all that unusual.


    ¡°What could make this place a stone district?¡± I asked turning back to Ara who gave me an odd look and shrugged.


    ¡°The Crawlers of course,¡± she gestured around, ¡°But it¡¯s not that bad this far landwards so don''t worry cutie crew I¡¯ll keep you all safe.¡± She winked one pure black eye at us causing Skull to dramatically turn her head away and Blood to giggle.


    ¡°Ok,¡± said Skull firmly. ¡°We need to know more about this gang.¡±

 Interlude - An exert and explanation

    From Professor Arnold Bumble¡¯s[82] ¡°A Study of the minor and major criminal factions, gangs and collectives active in Prasus during the 11301th eon¡±


    Chapter 416.E - The Crawlers.


    One of the largest gangs that have ever operated in Prasus and the largest to operate during the 11301th eon, for unknown reasons this highly brutal and powerful gang limited its area of operations to the northern dock spur (the Prasian local parlance for the four vast docking piers that extend from the city made from a number of so called ¡°districts¡± or city blocks) of the city alone.


    The Crawlers were characterised primarily by their incredibly deep resources and sheer brutality, they had access not only to a seemingly inexhaustible supply of rare and powerful clockwork crossbows but also to a drug called fury. This drug (of unknown source and origin) was highly addictive and prolonged use stripped away the higher portions of a man¡¯s mind reducing him to the level of a beast, the serial users of this drug were termed ferals at the time as they acted more like animals than men but were entirely obedient to those who could supply them with fury.


    These addicts formed the core of the Crawlers forces, acting as expendable shock troopers entirely fearless and numbed to all pain.


    The Crawlers started operating around the 11298th eon, arriving in Prasus from parts unknown and quickly claimed a large amount of territory from the more established gangs.


    They then continued to spread at an unprecedented rate thanks to their high quality weapons, well developed tactics, distribution and control of the highly addictive fury and deployment of the resultant ferals to use as ¡°crossbow fodder¡± in their near constant turf wars.


    These wars are what lead to the northernmost dock district temporarily falling from its iron safety rating to stone, the Crawlers took to regularly ambushing and annihilating watch patrols in the district until the watch presence was eliminated with the exception of a few cut off watchhouses most lacking their captains. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The Crawler leadership subsequently bribed several high ranking officials heavily to ensure the watchhouses received no reinforcements leaving the northern docks essentially undefended. In fact if it wasn''t for the so-called Old Guard, a united banner under which all the other dock gangs and criminals rallied to repel these invaders of the Prasus underworld, it is possible that they would have taken over the entire dock district.


    That our fair city owes the vast trade wealth of the northern dock spur to an alliance of criminals rather than the city''s guards is indicative of the quality of the watch during that eon along with their near total corruptibility.


    The dread Crawlers were eventually toppled by some sort of internal schism that resulted in the destruction of their hidden base and the death of their upper command with the exception of their leader Nathanial ¡°Red-Razor¡± who was famously arrested by the heroic captain Pendleton of the Prasus City watch (whose later career is so well known that it need not be reiterated here). Many claim that it was the arrest of the infamous ¡°Red-Razor¡± that began his rise through the ranks.


    The exact nature of the schism that weakened the Crawlers enough to allow his capture and the parties that caused it are unknown to this day.


    Whilst many of my colleagues cling to the assertion that the Crawlers were financed by the city state of Ulmar and that their leader Nathanial ¡°Red-Razor¡± was in fact a member of Ulmar¡¯s Special Forces (the so called Black Shields) I am forced by scholarly ethics to disabuse this notion.


    There has never been any factual and validated evidence to even hint at support for this hypothesis far more likely is accepted theory that Nathanial ¡°Red-Razor¡± was a deserter or retired soldier (probably a captain or similar judging by his well developed leadership skills) for the army of one of the city states near Prasus that fled to the trade city for protection after stealing a large shipment of military arms.


    Presumably the fact that they lost both a veteran captain and a vast amount of weaponry is why no nation has stepped forwards to claim him as its citizen, the shame would be considerable and recrimination possible even now. Whilst the idea of a criminal cult led by a member of a mysterious nation¡¯s Special Forces has a romantic simplicity to it I am afraid that the entire Ulmar theory is simply spurious nonsense[83].


    Phew... is that everything you needed to know? I think so. Nathaniel, fury, ferals, clockwork crossbows, Ulmar... yep that''s everything.


    Let¡¯s get back to the fun stuff!

 Month of Growth - 5

    We spent nearly an hour following Ara across the city and down various alleys as she told us about the Crawlers and their evil ways and the Old Guard which was trying and failing to keep them contained. She painted us the picture of a dying district that was going down swinging but going down all the same.


    So it was in a melancholic mood that we arrived at our destination bit it was so strange it knocked us right out of our funk. It was, at first glance at least, a dead end alley but the dead end in question was lit by hundreds of candles each in its own individual saucers half filled with liquid wax. They were everywhere that a saucer would fit, dotted around on the floor, set into the walls, even on the window sills far above us. I was looking around in astonishment and wondering how we were going to get our food when Ara walked up to a small nailed shut door that was set into the back wall and knocked smartly.


    ¡°This doesn''t look like a cafe.¡± Said Skull accusatory.


    Ara just winked at her and smiled. ¡°Funny that ain¡¯t it?¡±


    One of the apparently nailed on planks swung open and a pair of suspicious purple eyes stared out ¡°Oh it''s you Ara... who are this lot?¡± Asked a muffled voice as the plank swung closed again and the door slid open slowly to reveal a Leslecsis stood behind it. She nodded one of her heads at each of us in turn.


    ¡°This is the cutie crew.¡± Said Ara with a grin and I felt more than I saw Skull tense next to me. If it was anger or embarrassment I still couldn''t tell you.


    The Leslecsis didn''t bat an eyelid (possibly because she didn''t have any) at the name nor at our outfits and weapons, instead she gestured with a tentacle towards the back of the room. ¡°There are some tables free in the back, the kids with you know the rules Ara?¡±


    ¡°Rules?¡± Skull asked.


    The non-human nodded every head in unison. ¡°Only two pay your tab and take it outside.¡±


    ¡°What is this place?¡± I asked in astonishment looking into the gloomy interior. The place was nearly black with shadows and grime and the only lighting came from a scattering of candles in green glass jars hung from fishing nets which rather incongruously covered the walls and ceiling of the bar. Straining my eyes against the smoke I could see dozens of small booths and short round tables stretching back into the shadows. Quite a few had people sitting at them... at least I hoped they were people.


    The Leslecsis leered. ¡°It''s called the Rocky Bottom.¡±


    ¡°¡¯Cause if you¡¯re drinking here you¡¯ve hit rock bottom,¡± added Ara. ¡°... But since the Crawler war it''s started doing day time sandwiches, canap¨¦s and being a neutral meeting spot for gang leaders so it''s more of a cafe now. Lolin is just over-enamoured of her old rep.¡±


    Lolin scowled at Ara but without any real fire in it, ¡°once I used to spook people,¡± she said morosely. ¡°Now I''m nice old Lolin who makes good sandwiches... what a world.¡±


    She nodded down at us and sniffed. ¡°Come in then, Ara knows my menu so the rest of you just sit.¡± She shuffled off into the gloom and we padded in behind her. I stepped carefully over her trailing tails and picked my way across the room until I could sink gratefully into the surprisingly comfortable leather backed chairs that ringed a fireside table. Ara looked over at us and waved as Lolin deposited a variety of plates and cups onto the bar in front of her.


    I made myself comfortable on the chair and watched as Skull and Blood tried to do likewise, Blood wearing two rapiers on her belt and Skull having enough hidden weapons to make scratching an extreme sport meant that the process lasted several minutes and was quite funny to watch but they finally managed it just as Ara arrived.


    ¡°Here¡¯s your plate,¡± she handed me a pile of sweets and a steaming mug, ¡°here¡¯s yours,¡± Skull got a bun and a tall glass, ¡°and here¡¯s yours,¡± Blood looked impressed as Ara¡¯s flat headed tail spun out from behind her back with the last plate balanced on its tip and took it happily staring enraptured at an ¨¦clair the size of my forearm. ¡°Don''t worry cutie crew, it''s on me so tuck in.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m more than happy to pay if you wish.¡± Said Skull looking down at her plate with a clinical rather than hungry air.


    Ara bristled slightly at this (not a figure of speech, her head spikes stiffened and rose up from her skin by a good five centimetres) and shook her head. ¡°I said I''m paying, didn''t I?¡± Her tone was still light and playful but with more of a hard edge than I had heard so far.


    The sudden tension was totally defused by Blood who dived onto her ¨¦clair and began to shove chunks up under her mask with indecent haste. ¡°Thanks!¡± She squealed around the first fistful of cream and bread.


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome little red,¡± said Ara sweetly. ¡°Eat up, we don''t want you getting ill.¡± Taking a bite out of a piece of cake of her own (I honestly don''t know where she got it from considering all of her limbs were in use[84] but it¡¯s not really important).


    ¡°This is delicious,¡± mumbled Blood. ¡°Really it''s...it¡¯s just amazing! So creamy and tasty.¡± I was sure I could see Lolin¡¯s tails swish in delight for a second. Fearful reputation or not a cook of any species loves to have their food complimented.


    ¡°I''m glad you like it so much.¡± Ara smiled at Blood as the tiny girl continued demolishing her meal and I set about mine with equal vigour the second I got my hands on my cutlery (I have never been happy to eat with my hands like Blood does) however all through this Skull was still studying her first forkful.


    ¡°Something the matter Skull?¡± I asked between mouthfuls.


    ¡°This food looks awful,¡± she said slowly and carefully. ¡°I think I can see mould.¡±


    Blood leant over and squinted at it. ¡°Those are tea leaves Skull, it''s a tea bun they¡¯re part of it.¡±


    ¡°I... am not hungry.¡±


    ¡°But this stuff is great!¡± bemoaned Blood reaching out and picking up Skulls bun. ¡°Honestly if you¡¯re not going to I¡¯ll just...¡±


    ¡°How can you eat this stuff?¡± Spat Skull at the tiny girl.


    ¡°Because I''m not a snooty little spoiled princess?¡± Shot back Blood.


    ¡°Spoiled? You little insect!¡±


    ¡°I AM NOT LITTLE, I am only slightly under average height!¡±


    ¡°You don''t even come up to my shoulder!¡±


    ¡°Maybe not right now but when I put you on the ground, who''ll be taller then?¡±


    ¡°Oh just try it you hyperactive toddler...¡±


    Ara leant across and threw a muscular grey arm around Skull. ¡°Looks like there''s dissent in the cutie crew?¡± she said teasingly.


    Skull reached up quickly and shoved Ara¡¯s arm off her shoulder. ¡°We are not called the cutie crew.¡± She pouted, sounding suddenly like the teenager she actually was. ¡°We¡¯re the... the...¡±


    Skull looked at us, we looked at her. For a long second there was utter silence and stillness then she slapped her skull mask with one palm.


    ¡°We... do we not have a name?¡±


    I glanced at Blood who ignored me in favour of continuing to set about her new tea bun. ¡°I guess not.¡± I shrugged helplessly.


    ¡°When it was just me I never thought I needed one,¡± said Blood thoughtfully and slightly indistinctly. ¡°And I¡¯d forgotten about all that stuff by the time you guys joined.¡±


    ¡°Then we should make one up right?¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s either that or the watch gives you one and those names always suck.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, remember the North Street not-very-nice mugger group?¡± giggled Blood. ¡°I really don''t think they prioritise naming.¡±


    ¡°So if it¡¯s up to us... what about the Crime Troupe?¡± asked Skull. ¡°It¡¯s got a certain ring to it.¡±


    ¡°What are we aggressive minstrels?¡± said Blood shaking her head. ¡°We need something better... What about the Crimson Carvers! That''s got an edge to it.¡±


    ¡°But that makes us sound like the villains here,¡± I retorted. ¡°How about like The Sisterhood. We¡¯re all girls after all.¡±


    ¡°But that doesn''t exactly sound intimidating does it?¡± Said Skull.


    ¡°We could try some sort of clade?¡±


    ¡°Isn''t that for assassins?¡±


    ¡°A battalion?¡±


    ¡°Too few people.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve all got swords right?¡± asked Ara with a white toothed grin. ¡°How about the Blade Br...¡±


    We were interrupted by a cacophony outside the tavern. It sounded... well it sounded like a mob which was probably because it was. Faintly above the din we could hear a thin reedy voice raised in protestation.


    ¡°But I need the mercurial sulphide compound far more than some painter, he only wishes to copy life whilst I hold in my hands the means to... no wait... don''t put that there... No!¡±


    Ara sighed and down the last of her drink ¡°Every time!¡± she moaned, drawing a long knife. ¡°Every Koth damned time!¡±


    We got the Physician back eventually but it took a fair bit of bribery, some serious negotiation and a few threats of rapier to the face, Luckily Ara seemed to know everyone in the whole dock spur and it''s hard to mob when someone¡¯s calling out individuals names. A mob relies on being a single unified organism and doesn''t deal well with someone like Ara yelling, ¡°oh Mr Peterson how¡¯s your new son?¡± and ¡°Mistress Aileen I see your gout cleared up.¡± After we paid for the goods the Physician stole (or as he insisted ¡°negotiated¡±) we had it away on our toes as fast as we could whilst everyone was still laughing. When they¡¯re laughing they¡¯re not looking for a noose.


    The second we rounded a discreet corner we darted into an alley and took our preferred method of escape. In retrospect we should have been more considerate of our new companions but luckily Ara seemed entirely unbothered when we (wordlessly) went up the side of a building. We all used our preferred methods of escape, I unfurled my grapnel, Skull unsheathed her the complex clockwork climbing claws in her gloves and Blood just ran at the brickwork and somehow levitated upwards like a cat caught eating forbidden cream. Ara chose to follow Blood''s example and did remarkably well even if she did need a bit more scenery to accomplish it. But the Physician had much more trouble.


    ¡°You may have taken a shine to them Ara, but I don''t like them.¡±


    ¡°Yes Phys.¡±


    ¡°They are an unknown variable.¡±


    ¡°Yes Phys.¡±


    ¡°They are doubtless dangerous, both in that they are well trained and in that they have shown the desire to hurt members of the 9th.¡±


    ¡°Whatever you say Phys.¡±


    ¡°Does the name of the glorious 9th street hook runners mean nothing to you Ara?¡±


    ¡°So you aren¡¯t coming up the rope then?¡±


    ¡°... Damn you devil child.¡±


    The Physician looked up the length of dangling rope hanging before him (unwound from Ara¡¯s chest wrappings, for a while I thought I had figured out why she was wearing them. Turns out I was dead wrong but oh well) then he spat on his hands and began to laboriously haul himself upwards. Hand over hand he moved painstakingly climbing upwards, his face locked in a rictus of fear and determination. It was quite moving really; I could see he hated every motion and yet he still kept coming.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    However moving or not it took more than ten seconds and as we know that is nine seconds longer than a certain someone¡¯s attention span.


    ¡°TOO SLOW OLD MAN!¡± Blood bellowed merrily and then before he could reply she grabbed the rope and hauled. For any normal person it would have probably just bruised their arms but this was Blood we are talking about. The Physician shot upwards like a cork released from a champagne bottle and flew towards us screaming whilst Blood''s arms became a blur. Then, with a torrent of curses and a trail of sick, the Physician slammed onto the rooftop next to me.


    ¡°Excellent,¡± said Ara happily. ¡°Now that''s done with, we should get moving, we¡¯ll walk the Phys back to base then you can check on Lydia or go back home or whatever you want to do.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Ara.¡± I said, leaping nimbly over a short steeple as the Physician uncoiled from a crumpled heap on the ground and began to clamber laboriously to his feet with the aid of one of Ara¡¯s arms.


    ¡°Eh it''s all good¡± said Ara casually. ¡°You girls take the rooftops often?¡±


    ¡°Nearly all the time.¡± replied Blood merrily. She¡¯s always seemed happiest when she''s off the streets and on a roof.


    ¡°It can be quite hard going though,¡± cut in Skull snidely. ¡°I hope you can keep up.¡±


    Ara just grinned and flexed her grey shoulders, ¡°I¡¯ll try.¡± She said sweetly.


    And she did more than try. In fact she actually pulled away from me as we shot across the moonlit rooftops of Prasus. Ara uses her tail as a springboard you see, it doesn''t help her much across flat ground but when she jumps she can go five or ten metres further than anyone but Blood can and she never seems to get tired.


    I swiftly fell behind as Blood and Ara jockeyed with one another for first place in our impromptu race. I remember thinking at the time that Blood seemed to love it. I often got the impression even then that she held herself back around us, reined in her great strength and speed somewhat. But with Ara she obviously didn''t feel she had to... I guess that''s her choice, not the one I would have made. I mean we had just met her and we had no idea if she could be trusted so I wouldn''t have gone showing off like that[85].


    The two of them overtook and cut off, dashed and slid, jumped and vaulted their way across a good half mile in about 4 minutes. Blood was faster obviously but she tires easily, putting on great bursts of speed then dropping back, whilst Ara just ran steadily onwards... Of course Skull was keeping ahead of both of them as usual[86] but it was still cool. I did notice that Blood hadn''t called any ravens to her presumably since she didn''t want the Physician or Ara asking awkward questions.


    Me and Skull had a long running argument about the ravens that at one point (after a long night and a bottle of wine) had resulted in a small fire and a number of thrown chairs. I thought it was a thing that was unique to Blood, just something she had somehow been born with, whereas Skull thought it was part of her trapping somehow. She said (and here is where she lost me) that we didn''t understand Blood¡¯s magic enough to realise how it did fire and ravens at the same time (as it would turn out Skull was wrong about the ravens which I¡¯ve never let her forget[87]). Regardless, Blood obviously thought it might cause comment.


    It was when we were vaulting across yet another smokestack that the winds of destiny quite literally blew for us. A gust of sea air washed across the docks and carried to my nose a new scent, the scent of burning wood and metal.


    I stopped dead on that lonely rooftop and sniffed again. It was definitely the scent of charring wood with a sharp edge of heated metal. Within a heartbeat Blood and Skull stood either side of me weapons readied. Even Ara had folded up into formation behind us without a word covering our flank like a veteran (which I guess she was now I think about it, being a gangster is not a peaceful occupation). Only the Physician was still moving... but he was five rooftops back huffing and puffing like a steam train whilst trying desperately to pull himself over a gargoyle so he didn''t really count.


    ¡°Is that smoke?¡± Asked Skull looking quizzically at Blood; the younger girl sniffed deeply then nodded.


    ¡°It¡¯s a fire and it¡¯s a big one. I can smell burning wood, metal and it¡¯s distant but... human blood, pain and fear; lots of fear.¡± She said all this slowly and calmly but I could see her fingers tracing the rubies on her rapier with a sort of nervous energy.


    I remember nodding and craning my neck to see a distant building on fire, its glow just visible over the district''s wall. ¡°What is that... a shrine?¡±


    ¡°It''s a watchhouse,¡± Ara¡¯s voice was calm and level but oddly dull for her, ¡°The Crawlers sometimes attack them or sometimes people flee there and get hemmed in. Either way Crawlers deal with it the same,¡± Ara sighed. ¡°Burn ¡®em out and cut ¡®em down.¡±


    I looked at Blood then I turned to Skull after a second the two women nodded.


    ¡°Can you get the Physician back to your base Ara?¡±


    The half-breed wasn¡¯t stupid so she nodded solemnly at us then smiled. ¡°Of course... Good luck.¡±


    With that she turned and began to walk back towards the panting Physician who was still shuffling and slipping along the last rooftop like a man leaving a pub after a long night of bad choices.


    By the time we arrived it was almost too late. The barricades had already fallen and cries of animal pain and rage were rising from a vast undulating horde of ferals surrounding the watchhouse. A handful of watchmen were still defiantly defending the windows and walls but the front door was what attracted the eye. The actual doors themselves had been entirely ripped from their frames but in the hole that remained stood a tall watch officer dressed in the uniform of a captain with a heavy steel breastplate and bronze greaves. Whilst the other watchmen fought hard they were obviously exhausted, hacking and cutting without finesse and near collapse but this single captain stood entirely unbowed in the teeth of the horde. His tulwar flashing to and fro like a bolt of lightning keeping the encroaching savages at bay. For a second the light shone of his armour and revealed his face, young, haggard topped by blonde hair and split by a cruel old scar down his cheek. Behind him in the shadowed interior of the watchhouse we could see a handful of injured watchmen standing in a loose line between the door and a mass of white face civilians, many injured and all terrified.


    ¡°Back! Back I say!¡± Bellowed the watch captain as he cleaved the fingers from a grasping hand sending its owner scurrying away mewling in agony. Unfortunately from where we stood we could see that whilst gallant his defiance was pointless. For each feral he cut down three more muscled their way forwards to assault the wrecked doorway.


    We saw all this from where we had alighted in the shadows of the neighbouring building¡¯s rooftop. Our weapons were drawn but hidden out of sight beneath the lip of the roof (Blood had explained at length how much trouble a single errant flash could cause[88]) and we were just tensing to leap into the fray when a loud clear voice stopped us... just as it stopped the horde.


    ¡°Away from him! Step away! I said AWAY! Or no fury for you!¡±


    The crowd of ragged half naked shambling things howled with sorrow at the prospect and flew away from the watchman forming a wide circle around the bottom of the watchhouse stairs. From the crowd strode the voice''s owner, a huge broad chested figure of a man dressed in a grey leather duster, hood and coat. His hands were hidden by white fleece gloves and his eyes by a pair of thick brass goggles leaving not one inch of his skin exposed.


    I could almost hear Blood start drooling when I saw what was in his hands. The man (or women it was quite hard to tell and we never found out) was holding a huge ticksteel crossbow, a large copper cylinder filled with hundreds of arrows capped at one end with a mess of crossbow limbs and long steel strings and at the other with a stock with a huge padded plate (to prevent the weapons rapid fire from breaking the wielders bones). Ticksteel weapons were vanishingly rare even in Prasus (The world¡¯s foremost ticksteel manufacturer and exporter). Only the bodyguards of the heads of the highest houses, the Prasian navy¡¯s elite Special Forces division[89] and the Arch-Doges elite guards routinely wielded them. Outside of those three groups they essentially didn''t exist. So how had a mere dock gang got even a single one?


    This strangely dressed and insanely heavily armed figure clanked over to the watch captain and gestured at the mob, ¡°hail southerner I am here to inform you that Nathanial Red-razor wishes to speak to you. I would advise you against turning down his hospitality. His specific wording was,¡± here the strange purring accent of the gangster changed into a rather good falsetto. ¡°Drag him back here but gut him if he gives you any trouble.¡±


    The captain raised an eyebrow and gestured with his sword behind him. ¡°If you swear to let the civilians leave unharmed I will happily accompany you wherever you wish.¡±


    On the shadowed rooftop we looked at one another with a mutual air of admiration. We had always thought of the watch as... well corrupt and vicious obstacles to our job of taking the nobles down a few pegs but I guess assumptions are rarely completely accurate.


    ¡°Ah well that''s good and noble and all,¡± spat the well dressed thug. ¡°But I''m afraid the boss isn¡¯t keen on witnesses so they¡¯re all up for the chop regardless but you¡¯ve got a chance to survive.¡±


    ¡°Then never good sir, I say never! I would rather die than betray my oath of office!¡±


    The crossbowman shrugged. ¡°Well if you insist.¡±


    Without a further word the person levelled the great shining copper bow and pulled the trigger. Within the exquisitely tooled cylinder hundreds of intricate levers moved in unison, perfectly turned gears spun, platinum pistons pumped, silver springs snapped all for the purpose of sending a heavy metal bolt flying towards the valiant captain¡¯s heart.


    I didn''t even really see the movements, below or next to me. In fact all I was aware of at the time was a flash of crimson and a loud crack as Blood, falling from the sky like a cast down angel, landed between the crossbowman and the watch captain. For a second the world held its breath then something clattered to the ground next to Blood''s boot... a steel crossbow bolt cut neatly in half. Blood flourished her single drawn rapier and bowed with a cocksure flick of her cloak.


    ¡°Who in the Abyss are you?!¡± Barked the gangster in astonishment, almost certainly wide eyed behind the copper goggles. Blood just giggled and leapt forwards drawing her other blade. There was a sound like a steel auger and the man¡¯s priceless crossbow fell apart into valueless shards around his feet.


    ¡°I''m Blood,¡± She said with an audible grin. ¡°And.... we¡¯re still considering our team name.¡± Blood grabbed the gangsters collar and drew his head into her mask; hard. There was the sharp crack of bone breaking and the man reeled backwards in agony spraying a column of crimson across Bloods mask (where it blended in nicely), as the man fell Blood flourished her blades and the hundreds of ferals... charged.


    Both me and Skull had started moving the second Blood had leapt off of course but neither of us felt like following her lead and catapulting ourselves off into free fall. As such we arrived ten or so seconds behind her, dropping from a low ledge onto the station''s steps. Skull turned to me and pointed. ¡°Bright cover the civilians I¡¯m going to back up Blood.¡±


    I just nodded at her; this was no time or place to argue. Without another word Skull ran away across the cobbles towards Blood (who was doing a commendable impression of an out of control milling machine covered in razors). Her rapier and dirk were moving and cutting so fast that they looked like a silver net hovering in the air all around her, as ferals touched these silver strands they fell screaming and bleeding. Step by step Blood was carving a path through the centre of these human monsters. However Skull knew Bloods fighting style well (they spar together after all) and she knew it had a serious weakness, it was a powerful berserk art form true but she left her back wide open. Skull slipped into this blind spot now blade drawn and as Blood carved her way into the mass of screaming animalistic addicts Skull shielded her following her like a shadow and lashing out her blade at any feral that (through luck or judgment) got around Bloods guard. For how often they argue they fight really well together.


    I am telling you all this in retrospect however as at the time I had only a second to appreciate the synchronicity before I came under attack. By the time Skull had even reached Blood I had been forced to club four screaming ferals to the ground and break another one''s hand under my heel.


    I quickly found myself fighting next to the watch captain and, even though he was quite obviously baffled by this turn of events, he was visibly grateful for reinforcements. He kept the right side of the stairs clear whilst I stuck to the left and he happily laid into my side if his own supply of ferals dried up.


    As I¡¯ve said I''m not a skilled fighter but this was not a skilled fight; the ferals had no understanding of tactics or team work, they just charged screaming. In fact the only advantage they had was numbers... but that seemed more than enough. Every feral I clubbed to the ground was replaced by three more even before his teeth had stopped bouncing across the floor. Soon my arms were burning with strain as my mace rose and fell and still their numbers seemed endless.


    Out in front of me Blood was still doing her very best impression of an runaway waterwheel that some maniac had sharpened whilst Skull was skulking along in her shadow lashing out occasionally with her long blade to keep the ferals back (as I said before they weren¡¯t smart enough to try to flank her but, thanks to her constant forward momentum, a few got lucky).


    Then suddenly, as quickly as it had started, the fight was over. In retrospect without their leader the ferals were already on the edge of running and our determined assault had pushed them over the edge. As Blood cut another charging maniac down and I clubbed a wasted claw nailed woman to the floor something in them snapped and as one they turned fled, without a signal or sound. One moment they were fighting us like savage animals and the next they were fleeing for their life. I swung my mace at the empty air for a few heartbeats, driven by pure muscle memory, before I realised they were really gone and lowered it.


    With the sound of retreating footsteps echoing around the square I finally released my grip on my mace and winced as it fell with a disgusting splattering sound. Looking down at the tiles below my feet I finally saw the blood. It was everywhere, puddles and plumes and great oceans of deep vicious red stained across the entire square. My mace had fallen in a huge puddle of the stuff... right next to a floating tooth.


    I felt bile rise in my throat at the sight and turning away I saw Blood; stood in the centre of the devastation. She was shaking slightly, with rage or exhaustion I couldn''t tell, and gripping her two dripping rapiers so tightly that the leather of her gloves looked like it might crack.


    Fishing my mace from its disgusting puddle I raised a hand to wipe away the sweat that stuck to the inside of my mask (only succeeding in jamming a sweat dripping chunk of porcelain further into my face) and stared wide eyed at my friend. She wasn¡¯t moving, not apart from her ragged trembling breaths. She just stood there above the moaning screaming mass of injured ferals. I wanted to say something to her, do something to help her... but Skull beat me to it. She walked calmly over to Blood and laid a hand softly on the little girl''s shoulder. I nearly screamed as Blood spun and brought her rapiers around in a tight circle of blurred steel that stopped a mere shivering centimetre away from Skull''s unmoving masked head.


    The tall dark clad girl reached up and patted Blood on the top of her head like a mother soothing a scared child and said something to her that I was too far away to hear[90]. Blood seemed to uncoil as she spoke and after a moment she nodded and sheathed her rapiers. Walking away from the carnage followed by Skull she drew level with me and jerked a thumb over her shoulder.


    ¡°Before you ask Bright they¡¯ll live.¡±


    I shook my head. ¡°I was going to ask if you¡¯re ok.¡± I said softly reaching out to take her hand in mine, it was so small and it shook slightly.


    Blood nodded and shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m fine, just a bit tired from fighting and...I don''t like going all out like that. I worry I¡¯ll... hurt someone, even if it¡¯s just these monsters I still don''t like to hurt people.¡±


    ¡°I most heartily approve of the young lady,¡± said the nearly forgotten watch captain. His accent now I had time to analyse it was the refined drawl of a noble but nobles never joined the watch at less than Lord-Constable rank. ¡°I abhor violence as well but those wretches chose to become monsters and whilst I''m certain our surgeon will have his hands full tonight I feel that our mortician shall be singularly unemployed. I note your blade work is impeccable.¡±


    ¡°I sharpen my blades every day with only the finest stone you know?¡± Blood¡¯s pride filled tone brought a happy smile to my face and the hand I was squeezing stopped trembling and began to squeeze back.


    ¡°Ah you sharpened it with a stone?¡± asked the Captain, suddenly excited. ¡°I do as well! Everyone¡¯s always trying to get me to switch to using steel but I prefer the edge stone leaves.¡±


    ¡°THANK YOU!¡± bellowed Blood suddenly pointing at the man. ¡°Someone who finally gets it!¡±


    ¡°Oh for the love of...,¡± Skull waved a finger under the captain''s nose. ¡°She¡¯ll be insufferable for cycles now!¡±

 Month of Growth - 6

    I smiled as the old verbal sparring started again then belatedly realising just how odd the three of us looked, bickering with one another whilst wearing coloured coded outfits and bearing heavy weapons. Letting go of Blood''s hand I stepped to the front of our group and put on my most winning smile (totally ruined by the mask). ¡°Are you and your men well watchCaptain? And for that matter are the civilians?¡±


    The Captain bowed graciously. ¡°My men and I are well and the vagabonds never made it within blades reach of the civilians, we are forever in your debt.¡±


    ¡°Excellent!¡± I said. ¡°Now just for the sake of clarity... were those Crawlers?¡±


    ¡°Why yes ma¡¯am! They¡¯ve been following us for days!¡±


    ¡°Skull thought so.¡± I commented.


    ¡°Skull...?¡± Asked the Captain slowly but we ignored him.


    ¡°Ara¡¯s right about how they act,¡± Blood said waving at the groaning pile of partially eviscerated drug addicts that now had a number of watch surgeons hovering around it. ¡°No skill or discipline, they''re barely even people anymore.¡±


    ¡°But their leader was using a clockwork crossbow,¡± Skull picked up the two halves of the priceless weapon and glared at Blood, ¡°one of the rarest and most powerful weapons that can be made they cost enough to bankrupt a lesser noble house and it wasn''t just stolen, note the change of cylinders,¡± she pointed at the fallen gangster¡¯s pocket. ¡°The Arch-Doge commanded that ticksteel weapons never be shipped with spare parts so precisely this couldn''t happen. And yet here''s a gang lieutenant just carrying some around.¡±


    As I turned back to watch Captain, I heard Skull mutter, ¡°I¡¯ve always wanted one of those... and she just cuts it in half... can''t she think with her head for once instead of her sword!¡± Smirking to myself under my mask I nodded at the Captain. ¡°Might I ask... why did that man want you to come with him? Why did you attract Red-Razor''s attention but nobody else?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I really couldn¡¯t tell you ma¡¯am,¡± replied the Captain softly. ¡°As I have no idea myself but I have been attempting to locate and arrest him I suppose it is possible that he found out and was insulted, I understand he likes to kill his more bitter rivals personally.¡±


    ¡°Sounds absolutely charming,¡± said Skull as she looked around at the civilians who had crowded out of the watchhouse to gawk openly at us. ¡°What else can you tell us about him or about the Crawlers for that matter? We¡¯re rather running blind at the moment.¡±


    The guard looked at us for a moment then nodded. ¡°A recent report from the Arch-Doges¡¯ office did say...¡±


    ¡°Sir, I''m sorry to interrupt Captain Pendleton.¡± Said a thickly built guardsman interrupted the Captain. A long scar which traced the right hand side of his face flushed red as he turned his pugnacious face towards us with evident disapproval. ¡°But we need to start evacuating the civilians now if we have any chance of being out of the spur before it starts.


    ¡°Quite right Sergeant Peakings,¡± the Captain said sadly. ¡°Take squads 4 and 8 and escort them to safety if you please, I will stay and oversee the decommissioning of our watchhouse.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re... shutting the watchhouse down?¡± I asked. ¡°What about the Crawlers?¡±


    Captain Pendleton sighed and looked around. ¡°I wish it had not come to this ma¡¯am but the Crawlers have very nearly seized control of the entire dock spur and the watch has proven entirely unable to stop them as such we are being recalled and... and the pyre-guard are being sent in with orders to level every stone grade district in the spur, and to spare no one.¡±


    The Captain looked at us with tired, sad eyes. ¡°I truly understand why of course, truly I do that does not mean I have to like it. I know that the most glorious Arch-Doge would only have approved this plan if there was no other choice; and that letting the Crawlers continue to control most of a dock spur would cause more harm than anything else but.... but there are still innocent civilians in those districts.¡±


    I for my part was frozen with horror as he spoke. They were going to lay waist to an entire dock spur! How deeply embedded must the Crawlers be for this to be the only way to winkle them out? There would be thousands of deaths; for once even the pure blooded humans wouldn''t be spared. Everyone the pyre-guards found would be massacred just to get the gangs... they¡¯d kill Lydia too either just as collateral damage or they¡¯d assume she was a recovering gang member and slit her throat. They¡¯d even kill Ara, a thought which caused me a lot more pain that I expected even more so than the fact they might kill Lydia (who you must remember I had known for over a decade).


    ¡°Which is why the Captain¡¯s been sending squads all week to try to get as many evacuated as possible before the pyre-guard hit,¡± said Peakings proudly cutting through my trance. ¡°He''s determined to get as many people to safety as possible.¡±


    The Captain actually blushed, ¡°I am merely doing my duty Peakings nothing more.¡± As he coughed polity I turned to Skull and whispered into her ear.


    ¡°We can''t let them destroy this place,¡± I hissed. ¡°They¡¯ll kill Lydia and Ara as well.¡±


    ¡°I know,¡± Skull murmured back. ¡°I''m thinking.¡±


    The Captain managed to pull himself together and turned back to us straightening a nonexistent crease in his immaculate bowtie. ¡°Anyway.... I was escorting another group of refugees here when I espied an even smaller group that was being hounded by the Crawlers'' abominable feral foot soldiers. My men and I stepped in to defend them and drove them back but the Crawlers seemed far more focused than I had ever seen them, they harassed us continually on our way back here and as you saw their numbers continued to grow even after we arrived.¡±


    ¡°Which is why we¡¯re so glad you turned up to help us.¡± Added Peakings.


    ¡°Oh you¡¯re welcome.¡± Said Blood with a happy wave (she really never takes anything seriously... must be nice). Next to her Skull was deep in thought.


    ¡°Captain Pendleton?¡±


    ¡°Yes ma¡¯am?¡±


    ¡°If the Crawlers gang was to be destroyed or say driven away from Prasus would that be enough to suspend the march upon this dock spur?¡±


    I looked up hopefully as the Captain paused for a moment with a thoughtful expression on his face then he nodded with a wide smile. ¡°Why yes ma¡¯am it would be, the Arch-Doge doesn¡¯t want to hurt anyone but obviously he needs to think about the safety of the city as a whole.¡±


    I tried not to vomit at that simpering lie; the fact that the Captain obviously believed it only made me feel queerer (although that could also have been the fear or the exhaustion).  Skull no doubt felt the same but she was far better than me at hiding her emotions.


    ¡°Of course,¡± she said with only the faintest air of condescension in her voice which would have been entirely inaudible to anyone who didn''t know her as well as I did. ¡°So... Do you have any idea where the Crawlers might be based? Or if they have multiple bases which might be their main one?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid we don''t know where any of their bases are ma¡¯am,¡± said the Captain morosely, ¡°the Crawlers are somehow able to smuggle weapons and even soldiers into the city through our navy which is as I am sure you know the biggest and best trained in the world, they wouldn¡¯t be able to do that if we could see the drop off point,¡± He shrugged embarrassedly. ¡°We know... We know it''s in the northern dock spur... somewhere.¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯ve narrowed it down to about twelve miles of densely populated terrain with millions of hidey holes?¡± Asked Blood snidely.


    The Captain didn''t look offended; just sad. ¡°That is the problem ma¡¯am, the Crawlers don''t seem to lay claim to specific locations just too large swaths of territory, we haven¡¯t been able to narrow down even a direction they seem to be coming from. For a while we hoped we¡¯d find evidence of more aggressive defence of some single location, which would logically be of more value to them, but no such luck.¡±


    Suddenly I heard a susurration in the crowd behind me, it sounded like four or five people having a whispered argument. Turning I saw it was actually six and the sixth was walking over to us whilst two others tried to drag them back and three tried to stop the draggers.


    ¡°Uh Captain right, that''s your rank? I... get off of me Jerry!... I think I might actually know where they are.¡±


    Captain Pendleton looked wrong footed and pleased as he regarded the swarthy dark skinned dock worker. ¡°Really? That would be incredibly fortuitous Mr...?¡±A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°Ah Foreman Thomas Worthy sir,¡± said the man making a passable imitation of a salute. ¡°I used to work shipping and receiving up on the end of the Trade Winds district sir until all the docks there closed down after the Crawlers arrived. Me and some of me lads have been on the run since then and we¡¯ve been seeing the Crawlers around the place but they¡¯ve left us alone so far.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re too poor to steal from and too weak to recruit.¡± Said one of the men in the little huddle that now surrounded the former foreman.


    ¡°Right you are Keith,¡± continued Thomas, ¡°anyway we was trying to find somewhere to bed down for tonight,¡± he looked upwards and scowled. ¡°I guess last night now. We¡¯d seen a few feral packs but likes I said they just looked at us, laughed a bit and left so I led my guys down to the waterfront to a private dock I used to work at... Been abandoned some twenty years sir so I figured...¡±


    ¡°We figured it was empty and had a roof and nobody was going to mind us sleeping in it.¡± Said another of the men defensively.


    Captain Pendleton just nodded with a friendly smile. ¡°Quite right sir you will find no disagreement from me.¡±


    ¡°And so...¡± said Thomas; sounding distinctly more cheerful now that words like breaking and entering and trespasser weren¡¯t immediately in danger of being thrown around, ¡°we pry open dock 6¡¯s doors right? And it''s all mouldy and the roofs have fallen in so we move up to 7 but that''s got subsidence along the back and its arse is in the river,¡± at which the man rather charmingly stopped, blushed and turned to the three of us and half bowed. ¡°Uh... begging your pardon ladies I should know to watch my language around the fairer sex.¡±


    I smiled at that and made that little side to side wave motion that universally means don''t worry about it. ¡°It''s quite alright.¡±


    The man nodded still looking a little sheepish and continued, ¡°anyway me and the lads smashed down 8¡¯s door and found the entire place was filled with these weird crabs about the size of your head and they started wavin¡¯ their pincers at us so we scarpered sharpish so there we was tired and nearly giving up and then... then we tried 9,¡± The man''s voice choked up noticeably, ¡°the second... I mean the SECOND we touched that door, Crawlers everywhere! I mean everywhere! On the roof, rising out of the river, pouring out of the buildings, coming up out of damn manholes. You name it a Crawler was on it or in it. Those big brutes with the bows and the ferals both... most of the lads... they didn''t make it.¡± The man looked down with tears just visible on his lashes and the one previously identified as Keith took over.


    ¡°We ran for it, ran like the abyss was pulling us in, ran until our legs near gave out under us, but they still kept coming, we thought we were done for. Then we ran right into the Captain who saw off the Crawlers that was chasing us.¡±


    ¡°But they kept following us,¡± said Thomas again; visibly pulling himself back together. ¡°They just kept coming more and more of them. I¡¯ve never seen ¡®em like that before. Usually the Crawlers don''t bother us, it''s like I said¡­ we just aren¡¯t worth it, even the bigger groups what got something the Crawlers need... they just take that and go away again no fuss if people don''t try to keep a hold of what they want. But this... they wanted us dead no matter how many of them died to get us, they just kept hurling those damn drug heads and the big gangers at us and the Captain.¡±


    He looked at us with wide grateful eyes. ¡°If you three ladies hadn''t turned up I don''t think any of us would have made it. Thank you.¡±


    I found myself blushing somewhat under my mask whilst we helped people. We did it by one remove (by taking down nobles) so we really weren¡¯t used to seeing people¡¯s gratitude up close like this.


    ¡°Welcome!¡± Blood piped up cheerfully, as unembarrassable as ever.


    Behind us the Captain was talking to one of his men


    ¡°Did you hear that Wentworth?¡± he said joyfully, ¡°that must be the place; they¡¯ve never responded like that before to any of our forays!¡± He turned back to Thomas. ¡°Foreman Worthy, how many Crawlers would you say?¡±


    The foreman smiled sadly. ¡°Maybe ten or twenty times as many soldiers as you have Captain and that was just outside, when I was the foreman of Dock 2 we had maybe five guards outside and ten inside so....¡±


    I watched the Captain deflate his bearing of martial zeal becoming once more bitten down in panic and empathetic concern. ¡°Damnation, we have no choice, we must continue with the evacuation.¡± As he turned back to his men I turned to my friends.


    ¡°It would save Lydia.¡± I said quietly.


    ¡°And they aren¡¯t expecting something like us...¡± said Blood, tapping her mask with an obvious implication. ¡°If it came down to it I mean.¡±


    ¡°And everyone knows,¡± said Skull slowly. ¡°That when the lord of a fortress boasts that a thousand men couldn''t breach its walls you don''t send a thousand or two thousand or even ten thousand, you send ten. An obstacle for an army is nothing to a squad.¡±


    We looked at one another and in that moonlit moment we came to an unspoken accord.


    ¡°Well then,¡± we both turned as Blood rolled her shoulders and sliced her swords through the air. ¡°How about we make some pointed introductions?¡±


    I remember smiling at her and being so thankful that she was totally back to her old self, ¡°that wasn¡¯t your best.¡± I teased gently as we turned and walked away.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I cannot allow that.¡±


    The three of us turned slowly to regard Captain Pendleton. I remember that my hand coiled around my mace handle as I wondered if we had been wrong to save him. Then he bowed floridly to us.


    ¡°I mean no disrespect to your fighting skills but you are civilians, as a watchman I simply cannot allow you to place yourself in harm¡¯s way even for the safety of others. That is our job not yours.¡±


    Blood stood still for a moment then raised her hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle. ¡°Very honourable of you, Captain.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for saying so ma¡¯am.¡±


    ¡°Very honourable... but I have a counterpoint.¡±


    As the Captain turned his attention to her politely, Blood seized me and Skull around our waists. ¡°How are you going to stop us?¡± She laughed happily and launched us skywards. We landed with a thump back on our original overlook.


    I staggered slightly then found myself grinning at the astonished faces below, I sketched a quick salute to them and then three of us turned and ran into the darkness. Towards Dock 9, towards destiny and... Though we didn''t know it at the time, towards a whole mess of trouble and a lifelong friend.


    It only took us a handful of minutes to find the right dock thanks; primarily to Hermiosa. The huge white raven had thundered out of the sky as we went about getting ourselves lost and after a brief consultation with Blood had led us unerringly across the moonlit rooftops towards a very much more distant part of the shattered and battle scarred district. Even from our lofty perch on the rooftops above the rubbish strewn streets we could see the damage and decay of the place, broken windows, rubble filled doorways, burned out buildings. Blood even claimed she saw a skeleton just lying on the street but we... aren¡¯t so sure[91].


    If the route was ominous the dock itself was strangely... ordinary. I was utterly baffled. It was so ordinary I might have found it boring without the tension cracking along every nerve and muscle. Physically it was a dock like any other private dock in any of the four dock spurs of Prasus, a wide wooden warehouse made from Earl wood reinforced with bronze plating then heavily varnished which was open at one end to the sea. Huge heavy doors kept the landward side safely locked whilst allowing ships to sail directly into the covered warehouse portion of the structure to unload.


    From where we stood looking along the ragged edge of Prasus I could see a good two dozen of these docks edging the entire Trade Winds district, some were covered with ships like flies on rotting meat and some (like this one) entirely empty and abandoned but they all looked nearly identical. The only difference was a huge number stamped in faded red ink on the vast sliding doors of each warehouse and before us was printed the number nine... and the fact that this one had a good two dozen ferals lurking in the shadows all around it (obviously after the near miss with the refugees they weren¡¯t taking chances anymore).


    I could tell that neither of my companions had any idea what to do here and to be honest it was a bit outside of our training and expertise. We could generally sneak or fight our way into any noble house without fail but their guards and traps tended towards the trendy rather than the deadly and they preferred amphora¡¯s to armour but this was the headquarters of a deadly gang (whose leader was apparently a special forces commander from a foreign land) known for its brutality, affluence and cunning. It was... rather more intimidating than infiltrating the duchess DeFru¡¯s latest masked ball.


    I honestly don''t know what we would have done or how it would have turned out if we hadn''t seen the light. It was faint and dim, almost like a banked fire and it hadn''t been there when we first alighted on the rooftop[92]. Skull was the first to notice and pointed us towards it. ¡°Any idea what that is?¡±


    As we approached it was clear what it was. In that fetid alley there was a crouched and cloaked figure who was watching the warehouse as well. Tucked away behind a jutting wall, on a barrel next to them, was sat a tiny candle. Its expertly placed angle would mean it was invisible from the ground but the walls of the alley scattered the light up into the air.


    We dropped down silently behind the figure. Say what you like but after a few months of thievery training I could move quietly when I wanted to. All three of us landed like falling leaves with Blood in the lead and we advanced towards the figure.


    Like I said we didn''t make a sound, not a peep. But somehow as we prowled across the piles of broken glass, discarded rope and old rotten takeout, somehow the figure knew we were there. It suddenly spun to face us with a long barbed knife in each of its hands.


    Blood didn''t hesitate for a second of course. As Skull stepped up close to me and I fumbled with my mace the first ten blows had already been struck. Blood and the cloaked person danced to and fro across the alley as their blades crashed together again and again.


    I saw instantly Blood was on the back foot (even novice swordswomen that I was back then) and I could tell what the problem was. Just like with Skull, Blood had tried her usual opening gambit which was to simply overwhelm her enemy with her nigh on superhuman speed and strength. Skull had beaten her with skill and grace but this person (whilst slower than her) seemed just as strong as she was.


    Even I watched Bloods rapiers locked with the figures'' daggers and they strained against one another with such force I feared the cobblestones beneath their boots might crack. I had and still have no idea how the match would have ended because just as they went to break away and readdress a cloud moved in the heavens and a shaft of moonlight filled the alley freezing them in place (I will point out to save Blood some face in your eyes that it was very dark and only about ten heartbeats had gone by since we¡¯d landed so this was the first time she could see her opponent clearly).


    I remember seeing Blood start noticeably as the light hit her opponent before cringing backwards with what looked like real fear written across her form.


    ¡°Oh no not you!¡±


    Her opponent dropped a dagger and reaching up tapped Blood on the nose.


    ¡°Boop!¡± Said Ara cheerfully.

 Month of Growth - 7

    Less than a minute later the four of us were sitting around Ara¡¯s small candle down a different but still fetid alley[93]. This time Blood had thrown her caped arm across the candle and was half concealing the flame in a cage made from her fingers keeping the light angled towards the ground.


    Blood was apparently unaware that her gloved skin was continually being licked by the flickering flame and I could see that Skull was desperate to start writing notes and considering hypotheses. But Ara wasn''t in the know so she restrained her curiosity with visible effort.


    For her part Ara looked very different to the last time we saw her. She was still the swaggering laughing gangster girl but she had an air of seriousness about her that seemed entirely divorced from the way she had previously acted. She was wearing as mentioned a long leather cloak that covered her tail and flattened down her head spikes complimented with a piece of very fine steel chainmail that wrapped around her chest and hung down across her thighs[94].


    What I noticed first however was that she was wearing her mask again just like when we first saw her. Honestly it¡¯s not impressive you could (and in fact she does) make it yourself in about twenty seconds with just a length of rope but it¡¯s functional.


    ¡°God I hate the alleys around here.¡± Ara muttered, waving her tail through the air to dislodge some thankfully unidentifiable piece of grime then sighing and hunkered back down again. She sat across from me and Skull and was actually cuddled up next to Blood with an arm around the tiny girl¡¯s shoulders. Blood part genuinely didn¡¯t seem to know how to handle this and so was simply sat in petrified silence. After a moment I decided to fill the silence.


    ¡°I didn''t really get a chance to see it last time but your mask looks good on you.¡±


    Ara reached up and pulled her mask down until it hung like a necklace and beamed at me. ¡°Thanks! I make it myself.¡±


    ¡°Surely you mean made?¡± Asked Skull.


    ¡°Unlike you three cutie pies I don''t have a posh permanent mask I just grab a rope off my shelf and wind it around my face,¡± Ara said obviously amused. ¡°I only wear it when I''m expecting trouble.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯re expecting that now I take it?¡±


    Ara nodded and looked around. ¡°Well you three colourful crazy cuties have turned up again so yes.¡±


    I grinned despite myself then pointed at the now slightly more distant warehouse. ¡°We think the Crawlers are based in that docks... are we wrong?¡±


    Ara shook her head, ¡°I doubt it. I¡¯ve always thought the Crawlers had a base around here but I¡¯ve never been able to actually find it,¡± the older girl raised a finger and pointed at the ocean across from us, ¡°I was only scoping it out now because I saw a weird light under the water over there when I was on my way back to check on you girls. Not sure what it was but it looked like it was headed this way, I dived and had a look but there wasn''t anything down there,¡± she stopped for a moment and gave us a considerate look. ¡°How are you by the way, I take it you won?¡±


    We spent a few minutes telling Ara about our fight, meeting the watch Captain being told about the dock and deciding to fight the Crawlers and most importantly about the impending doom of the district.


    Ara looked shell-shocked and shook her head slowly, ¡°I can''t believe they¡¯re going to try that,¡± she whispered. ¡°The Crawlers have informants; they''ll be long gone before the guard arrives. They¡¯ll just be butchering innocent people.¡±


    ¡°We aren¡¯t going to let that happen.¡± I said firmly which caused the older girl to smile.


    ¡°You three are adorable,¡± she said. ¡°So determined to fight the good fight and save the world.¡±


    ¡°Yeah... what happened to Lydia... shouldn''t ever happen again,¡± I said looking as determined as I could (that nobody else could see thanks to the mask of course). ¡°Do you want to come in with us Ara? We can use all the help we can get.¡±


    Ara smiled widely showing four rows of grey square teeth. ¡°I''m always happy to help out little cuties like you.¡±


    I could feel Blood blushing next to me probably because I was blushing as well. Skull just sighed with exasperation as Ara turned her grin on her. ¡°Try to keep up.¡± The black clad girl muttered as archly as she could.


    As the four of us slunk out across the wharf towards the distant dock I confess I was worried Ara might give us away but of course I was being stupid. Ara was a smuggler after all, literally a professional criminal and one doesn¡¯t survive that without being able to be very sneaky.


    Whilst I clumped along in the darkness with the subtlety of a steam coach Ara vanished into the shadows like a ghost. She moved her whole body including her tail in time with the faint motions of the wind so that she simply seemed to fade into the background of the city. Even Skull seemed impressed as we padded down alley after alley past huge stacks of stinking crates and old crab nets towards dock 9, as we slunk from shadow to shadow Ara told us her plan.


    ¡°The ends of the docks dip down into the water as you know,¡± she whispered to us as we passed a dosing sentry. ¡°But what most people don''t know is that there is a lip going around the end of the actual dock. If you¡¯re small and careful you can walk right into the warehouse.¡±


    ¡°Is that safe?¡± asked Blood with an unusually worried tone.


    ¡°And are we going to fit?¡± asked Skull indicating Ara and herself with a wave of her hand. ¡°Bright¡¯s about normal height and Blood''s titchy but we¡¯re both...¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah I can''t fit,¡± said Ara with a grin and a tail flick. ¡°But I can just swim around the end underwater, works twice as well¡±


    Blood hissed at Skull and poked her with an elbow. ¡°I''m not short! I''m only a little shorter than average.¡±


    ¡°By a head and a half.¡± Teased Skull prompting another jab of an elbow.


    ¡°You can borrow my grapple-mace if you need it, Skull,¡± I said waving the implement in question at my friend who shook her head. ¡°I¡¯ve got a few little tricks.¡± was all she would say on the matter[95].


    Following Ara¡¯s lead we skirted a final patch of light and circled around the huge courtyard we had previously seen directly in front of the warehouse. It was a good hundred metres wide with a fountain in its centre place there in happier more prosperous times. Now it was being used as cover from sea spray by a pair of armed operatives who stood hunched and bickering under the outstretched wing of a chipped stone angel. Neither looked up as we passed them by; concealed in the deepest shadows.


    Finally after what felt like hours of painfully slow sneaking we passed the Earln wood bulk of the warehouse and reached the raw sea behind it.


    ¡°Here,¡± said Ara finally as we drew level with the massive gaping aperture at the back of the dock, sized to fit a whole cargo ship inside itself, ¡°the stone lip is just under the water, even at low tide, you¡¯ve got to know it¡¯s there and aim your foot just right but here¡¯s the real trick.¡± She pointed at the wall. ¡°See the mooring chains? Grab them for purchase and press your feet into the base of the wall as you walk so that way you won¡¯t slip.¡±


    With that Ara winked at us, turned and dove right into the churning white flecked waters. For a second her tail broke the surface flicking up a plume of water then she was gone, vanished into the deep.


    We stood in silence for a moment just watching the water then Blood turned to me. ¡°Let¡¯s get a move on; can''t leave her alone in there right?¡±


    ¡°Right!¡± I said suddenly snapped back into action mode. Looking down at the roaring ocean I took a deep breath and sticking a foot out plunged it into the water. For a second I was terrified my foot would just keep going and take me with it but, just like Ara promised, my descending shoe instead hit a solid stone surface just under the water. With the solid (but also incredibly slippery) foothold to balance on I turned quickly and grabbed the hanging chain. Then just like Ara told me to do, I pressed my feet into the base of the wall and clambered along slowly; the top of my head brushing the ceiling.


    Blood was just behind me which I remember finding slightly odd even back then since usually she took the lead. For once she seemed to be having real trouble sliding back and forth her legs skittering on the stone like a newborn foal trying to stand. I think she was trying to walk upright rather than the diagonal pose I had adopted but I still thought she¡¯d make it even if it wasn''t gracefully. But then came the moment of panic.


    As she let go of one of the shorter chains to complete the turn around the end of the wall, she slipped. As she plunged forwards she shot a hand out and caught hold of one of the oldest rustiest looking chains with a vice-like grip. For a second she hung there suspended on this ancient chain. Then with a faint metallic *crack* the iron links beneath her fingers finally lost their battle with rust and metal fatigue and shattered. Blood plunged backwards into the inky water and vanished with barely a ripple.


    I stared at the rough choppy surface for a second waiting for her to surface again. I couldn''t see Skull[96] and I didn''t want to land without any of my friends.


    ¡°Blood?¡± I asked the air with an edge of impatience. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you... what... wait...¡±


    A terrible thought had just occurred to me, one that barely made sense for a sea city like Prasus but which I thought all the same. ¡°Blood!¡± I screamed, panic gripping me as I realised I had never actually seen her do it had I? And she¡¯d always vetoed plans involving it hadn''t she?


    I was readying myself to dive into the ocean after my best friend (currents and riptides be damned) when a few metres ahead of me the water began to bubble. For a second I thought maybe Blood was trying to burn her way out of the sea itself as the rippling grew ever more rapid. I was about to jump in anyway when, with a final surge of foaming froth, Ara exploded out of the water ahead of me and landed on the very end of the inner pier. In her arms was a damp bundle of red cloth which was making strange choking noises.


    I scrambled the rest of the way in a daze barely noticing Skull (who I swear fell off the ceiling[97]) and landed next to Blood, who was coughing on her hands and knees. Water and spit ran out of the gaps around her mask. She had obviously decided not to risk removing it even under these circumstances.


    Ara was patting her firmly on the back as we arrived and she gave us a reassuring nod tinged with a slight air of annoyance.


    ¡°She¡¯ll be fine... but...¡± she paused to slap Blood on the back again before turning to glare at us. ¡°...Why didn''t you tell me she couldn''t swim? I¡¯d have stuck closer to the wall if I¡¯d known.¡±


    ¡°Because we didn''t know until she fell in either,¡± replied Skull levelly as she knelt down to give Blood a once over. ¡°Your idiotic overblown pride will kill you one day you know? And that certainly isn¡¯t perfect.¡±


    I¡¯m pretty much certain Skull said it that clunky way deliberately because after a second more coughing a weak voice replied from the floor. ¡°I am.... perfect... water... just evil.¡±


    ¡°Blood you...¡± I couldn''t find the right words to describe just how worried I was about her. ¡°You¡¯re ok right?¡±


    Blood nodded and coughed again. ¡°Yeah yeah... sorry... I¡¯ve basically ruined our stealth mission.¡± Said younger girl trying to wring out her cape one handed.


    ¡°Oh I wouldn''t say that.¡± Replied Ara with a grin, she pointed away from us back towards the front doors of the warehouse a few hundred metres away. It was only then that I noticed the light and heard the... chanting?


    ¡°For the red gods we fight, for the red gods we die, lords of earth and sea and sky.¡±


    ¡°Their bounty is ours!¡±


    ¡°For the red gods we fight, for the red gods we die, lords of earth and sea and sky.¡±


    ¡°Death to the heretic!¡±


    ¡°For the red gods we fight, for the red gods we die, lords of earth and sea and sky.¡±


    And so on and so on. I honestly don''t remember how many times they repeated their chant, a hundred unseen deep voices chorusing over and over in near perfect unison. The non-repeated lines were delivered in a far more unusual voice; male but high pitched and oddly sweet sounding like a young child.


    I picked Blood up from the floor and we moved away from the water filled dock. Together the four of us peered into the darkness. For a moment it was nothing but impenetrable blackness then as my eyes adjusted I could see the lights. They were faint and far and their source obscured by distance and discarded cargo but even as I watched every shadow in the warehouse spun and danced as the light swung back and forth... like it was being carried.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    And it was.


    I felt my mouth drop open in awe as I saw the distant procession; for that is what it was even I could tell. Men and women wearing suits of bone and red cloth marched in three abreast around a small pyramid[98] just inside the main doors of the warehouse. Each of the marchers carried long torches set atop poles held upright in front of their faces like a knight would hold a sword (and with the same reverent air I may add). In the middle of their marching lines atop the ziggurat stood another figure. So small and distant I couldn¡¯t even make out their gender but from the way they were gesturing grandly at the surrounding Crawlers I assumed they were the man who had been counter chanting earlier.


    But even the marching men and the ziggurats mysterious figure faded into the background as my eyes adjusted fully and I saw what lurked in the darkness. In a dozen concentric circles around the ziggurat, just on the edge of the torchlight, were ferals. Thousands and thousands of them, but these weren¡¯t howling and fighting; they were silent and still kneeling in shadows with their foreheads touching the ground. Like they were praying.


    This was no gang I realised with a start; this was something far more dangerous. This was a cult.


    To say I was scared would be an understatement; I was terrified... I was nearly shivering with fear[99].


    Look at this from my perspective ok?


    Me and my three friends, two of which I¡¯ve known for a few months and one I¡¯ve known a couple of hours, have snuck into this huge warehouse/dock building expecting to snoop steal and maybe stab a guard in the leg before running off into the night with some expensive trinkets and baubles.


    Instead we were presented with a full blown cult complete with optional blood-soaked sacrificial ziggurat, crazed chanting leader and hundreds of trained religious fanatics with advanced weaponry... oh and thousands of super strong utterly inhuman drug addicts who would kill anyone or anything for their next fix which only the crazy chanting guy could give them.


    We were so outclassed it wasn¡¯t even funny.


    I remembered thinking I¡¯d have almost preferred to run into an Inquisitor (which caused me heart palpitations and I instead decided I¡¯d rather fight every Crawler in the world unarmed at the same time than fight a single Inquisition) which was when I remembered. We learned to repress who we were so instinctively that sometimes even we forgot. They had us outnumbered and outgunned yes; but we had them outmagiced[100].


    Whilst I was psyching myself up and trying to forget that with Ara around we couldn''t use our magic I noticed something, something both odd and extremely terrifying. Next to my face balanced atop the crate we were sheltering behind was a loose rivet (nothing unusual there) but as I had leapt out from behind the crate it had begun to... dance. I can''t describe it any other way I really can''t. It was shaking and shimmying and bouncing across the wooden surface and after a moment it flicked off the edge and landed with a faint *plink* on the floor.


    I reached down and picked it up, then I looked across the room, my eyes drawn by some sixth sense to the water in the dock, the water we had clambered across, the water which was now writhing.


    As I stared I felt a strange sensation in my bones and bowls, a quaking, as if my whole body was being shaken up and down. It reminded me of one too many steam carriage rides that had left the mind dull and the posterior aching.


    Ara swore (I think); a deep low snarl that I realised wasn¡¯t a human language but which Skull obviously spoke as she nodded sharply, ¡°you can say that again.¡± She replied, whistling low and long.


    In the water of the dock bay a shadow was growing just under the surface, a shadow the size of a horse, then a house, then larger and larger. Contorting and flickering as it stomped towards us.


    Stomped was the right word. The shaking and the rumbling was coming from under the water. Only now did I notice it had a specific rhythm like a giant tap-dancing in steel boots. I could hear the pattern in my bones as the shadow grew and grew and... Exploded.


    That''s what I thought for a second but then I saw it was just the eruption of water tricking my eyes. Before us the ocean fountained upwards in a vast geyser as something huge broke the surface and strode out onto the stone floor of the dock bay only a dozen or so metres away from us.


    It was a crab. A crab the size of a street but a crab nonetheless. It had three legs on each side of its vast shell and a pair of titanic pincers which clacked even as I watched. Its mottled grey brown carapace shone oddly in the light and strings of seaweed and the occasional stuck fish fell off it in coils. For a second I wondered what exactly the Crawlers had done to enslave this leviathan, what they had given it, what they had done to it... then I noticed the huge gears on its back clicking and turning.


    ¡°A golem,¡± breathed Skull. ¡°It''s a gigantic clockwork golem!¡±


    That was when I truly saw it. The armour plating did make it look like a crab but it was a golem, the largest I had ever seen or even heard of. Its legs were huge pistons and its pincers looked like cargo lifters. The gaps in its armour showed gears and cranks not flesh and sinew and I saw that the grey brown was only sea slime and weed, underneath the caked-on grime was flashing golden alloy that shone in the dim light.


    As the leviathan emerged the chanting reached its peak. The man on the ziggurat was nearly horse with his shouted exaltations. The ferals climbed solemnly to their feet and reverentially, even fearfully, formed a path for the crab to walk along. As it approached the ziggurat we heard a hissing and then a sudden rush of air as its mouth-like armour plate opened. As it halted at the base of the stone stairs the cult leader barked a command and about half of the procession dropped their torches and banners and began to stream inside the golem. They emerged seconds later laden with sparking weapons or half open crates filled with shining technology or darkly gleaming narcotics.


    ¡°No wonder the navy couldn''t find them,¡± muttered Ara. She sounded... a mixture of offended and deeply impressed to be honest. ¡°Underwater smuggling! They actually walked along the ocean floor, even Ladorian¡¯s would have trouble finding them....¡±


    ¡°But a golem is able to make a journey like that alone...,¡± interrupted Skull. ¡°...I¡¯ve never even heard of one that smart! It must have cost tens of millions of Lire to build; an entire noble house couldn''t afford one! How in the Abyss did a dock gang get it?¡±


    ¡°Maybe it fell off the back of a cargo ship?¡± Quipped Blood but her attempt at levity fell flat in the face of the vast clanking monstrosity ahead of us.


    ¡°Well at least we know why they¡¯re called the Crawlers now,¡± I was vaguely astonished that my voice didn''t break. ¡°That must be the Crawler itself.¡±


    ¡°The odds are heavily against us and any rash action we take now will most likely be fatal,¡± said Skull matter-of-factly, ¡°especially with Red-Razor himself arrayed against us.¡± She pointed at the figure on the pyramid and I slapped myself for not realising who he was earlier. I had seen his wanted poster after all.


    ¡°So what do we do?¡± I asked quietly hoping the answer wasn¡¯t ¡°get closer.¡±


    ¡°Steal every crate we can,¡± said Blood. ¡°Then run like the Abyss is drawing us in.¡±


    ¡°For once I agree with the child¡± said Skull ignoring the hiss of indrawn breath and the poking that accompanied her remark. ¡°We¡¯re thieves not an army. We¡¯ve seen their biggest secret so now we should just focus on distributing that information, perhaps to this Old Guard gang Ara knows. Hopefully they¡¯ll rally the troops and step in.¡±


    ¡°They would,¡± agreed Ara instantly, ¡°it would be worth the risk to get their hands on half this gear or that big golem. They¡¯d gathered up every single gang in the spur and hit this place hard enough to turn it into a crater especially knowing that if they don''t the districts are going to be flattened.¡± She smiled at us with a big grey goofy grin that made her look much younger. ¡°You¡¯ve all done great but it''s time to step backwards and let us deal with our problem ok? You grab some gear and your friend and get her back home and I¡¯ll get the Old Guard to deal with this lot ok?¡±


    I was more than happy to agree but next to me someone seemed to feel differently, ¡°I bet I could take that thing down,¡± Blood was, I believe, still smarting over the child remark. ¡°And then it would be easy enough to beat them right? I could just...¡± I reached out and pulled her back away from the Crawler and hugged her to me. She writhed and hissed for a second but without any real fire; more out of obligation than anything. (She isn¡¯t as impulsive as she seems sometimes, and if she hadn''t let me pin her I couldn''t have).


    ¡°I wonder if we could sneak back in,¡± murmured Skull. ¡°It wouldn''t be too difficult to get back in through the dock and we may be able to supply a very necessary advantage to Ara¡¯s side during the initial attack by launching a flanking action, how would...¡± I tuned out the girls'' plot and, making sure I had a grip on Blood to prevent her wandering off (honestly she''s worse than Roland sometimes), gestured at Ara and Skull.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get moving.¡± The others had just nodded and we had begun to slink backwards into the shadows when a single word echoed through the warehouse that stilled the blood in our veins.


    ¡°INTRUDERS!¡±


    As I''m sure you can imagine I very nearly ruined my outfits¡¯ elegant pantaloons. Panic gripped at my heart as I flinched around eyes darting wildly back and forth looking for whoever had spotted us. Without a word the four of us had drawn our weapons and backed further into the comforting darkness until we stood pressed together back to back in a four pointed star, blades raised and readied, peering eagle eyed into the gloom, waiting for the first flash of metal or sign of motion. For a long moment we stood their hearts hammering and skins sweating before Blood summed up the situation pretty accurately.


    ¡°Where in the Abyss are they?¡±


    After a moment of stillness Skull scurried forwards, peeked over a crate and shrugged ¡°They... aren¡¯t even looking at us.¡±


    She was right, not a single gangster, operative or feral seemed even vaguely interested in our hiding place. Nobody was looking at us or heading towards us, in fact the remnants of the procession seemed to be moving directly away from us towards the base of the Ziggurat. Around the room the ferals had clambered to their feet in a mass but a few bellows by their attendant operatives had them cowed and cowering again in seconds.


    ¡°INTRUDERS?!¡± Nathanial stood atop his ziggurat like a king on a castle. Now that the last of the procession was clustered around him I could finally see his face lit up by their torches. He was shorter than I expected, clad in a deep red waistcoat and white silk pantaloons with two shining clasp steel razors stuck in his waistband. But his face was the strangest and most horrific part even to this day I have never seen anyone else that looked remotely like he did. His face had been powdered white and daubed with aristocratic makeup (rather amateurishly) but still just visible through the powder and the gold paint were innumerable ancient scars that criss crossed his cheeks, forehead and throat. They looked like they were ritualistic rather than battle wounds (don''t be impressed, Blood told me that later, at the time I just thought he looked messed up) and even as we watched they flushed red with anger.


    ¡°Well... one intruder!¡± said a distant voice, its tone suddenly filled with uncertainty, ¡°we found him lurking around the square boss, what should we do with him?¡± As the minion spoke the four of us sagged with relief and stumbled back into the shadow of a line of crates.


    ¡°Bring him here!¡± Said Red-Razor his voice was strange; it was a false-falsetto and sounded old.


    The crowd parted in front of the ziggurat to reveal a half dozen hulking operatives in long black leather storm coats with their clockwork crossbow stowed across their backs. They were obviously trying to drag the prisoner to their boss with the approved level of moving menace that large thuggish evil minions are known for but it fell rather flat, partly because the man they were hauling was on the skinny side meaning that only two of them were carrying him and four were just stood around glowering, but mostly because the man was backwards and upside down. As his face dragged across the smooth stone of the warehouse we could hear a distant (and obviously somewhat muffled) refrain emanating from the man that sounded a bit like ¡°ow ow ow ow ow ow¡±.


    Nathanial ran his hands down his waistcoat making a show of smoothing away a non-existent crease then he made a sweeping gesture with a fingertip.


    ¡°Lights!¡±


    I was nearly blinded by the burst of pure white light that followed the command. After blinking my eyes clear for a second I realised the gas globes along the walls had ignited despite the fact the building''s gas supply was officially cut off. Ahead of us the marchers dropped and stamped on their torches (causing a few brief snatches of cursing and one scream, it¡¯s not as easy as it looks) then they drew their weapons and tried to look menacing (not that easy with smoking feet).


    ¡°Up.¡± Intoned Red-Razor.


    The men spun their captive and held him upright before their boss. The bound man blinked in the light for a second then turned to regard Red-Razor with a detached expression.


    ¡°Your floors are filthy,¡± said the man in a strangely familiar voice. ¡°And I don''t think much of your interior decorating either.¡±


    ¡°Oh by Koth!¡± Ara said her voice was flat and low. I turned to look at her but Red-Razor''s reply drew my attention back.


    ¡°Ah excellent you still possess a sense of humour... this will be fun,¡± Nathanial lent in closer to the man and slowly unlatched one of his razors. ¡°Let¡¯s start with an easy question; what is your name?¡±


    ¡°Well Gaius Bryn Reynolds... but most people call me the Physician,¡± spat the Physician through bruised lips. ¡°I was looking for my prot¨¦g¨¦ but I believe I have missed her.¡±


    Red-Razor laughed a long high pitched giggle that sounded truly disturbing coming from a man of his eons but at the time I barely noticed this. What I did notice was Ara trying to sprint out of our cover and Blood tackling her around the waist.


    ¡°No, not yet!¡± Hissed the smaller girl holding Ara tight in her steel strong arms, the half-breed struggled for a second then her eyes cleared and she nodded. As they helped each other up and clambered back into the shadow of a discarded figurehead I made up my mind.


    ¡°We can''t just let him die,¡± I said. ¡°How can we help him?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve got a few tricks up my sleeves... but...¡± Skull gestured at the mob mutely. ¡°I''m sorry Ara we can''t fight this many trained soldiers not without a serious edge.¡±


    ¡°I know I know,¡± Ara looked up at us and gave me a sad smile. ¡°Just get moving and tell the Old Guard about this. I¡¯ll go and... try to get Phys out ok? Just... don''t wait up.¡±


    I stared at her for a second then I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. ¡°NO; no way! That¡¯s... that''s wrong! You can''t just... just give up! There¡¯s got to be something we can do?¡±


    ¡°Please I don''t want you three to get hurt but I can''t leave Phys... I¡¯ve never left one of my crew behind.¡±


    ¡°And I won¡¯t let one of my friends die!¡± I snapped looking her in the eye. ¡°Not now, not here, not ever! We are going to fix this... somehow.¡±


    Ara looked at me, her wide black eyes suddenly swimming with unshed inky tears then she nodded and pulled her mask up.


    At my side the unusually reticent Blood let out an enormous heartfelt sigh, ¡°I''m going to have to, aren''t I?¡± she asked the ceiling. ¡°I hate hate hate hate my ideas sometimes.¡±


    She pointed at me. ¡°You''ll run in when they start fighting.¡± Then without waiting for us to reply she turned on her heel and strode proudly out from behind our crates and directly into the light. Before I could even reach out to grab her she stuck her hands up under her mask and wolf whistled and a proper one at that, a high pitched scream that echoed off the walls.


    I shrank back into the shadows instinctively as the entire gathering turned to stare at her. For a long heartbeat the entire warehouse was still... Then with a somewhat overly dramatic gesture Blood shot her arm out and from her sleeve shot the aether disruptor. I have no idea to this day when she took it off me or how she had attached it to her arm unless she¡¯d taken the time to sow a pocket into her sleeve which would be both ridiculous and insane[101].


    ¡°Who are you? How did you get in here?!¡± Red-Razor asked, staring in awe at Blood. Remember that I was used to her way of acting and what she looked like. Imagine how surprised you would be to see a tiny heavily armed person dressed in a bright red costume somehow just appear out of the shadows in your home. It would at least cause comment.


    Blood gestured at Red-Razor and bowed, ¡°I''m a thief... and I''m a thief.¡± She said with an audible grin and then with a muttered swear word (that I was thankfully too far away to hear clearly) she activated the Disruptor... Have you ever heard the expression utter pandemonium? This was like that but times ten, in a shipwreck, on top of a volcano, during a solar eclipse, on fire.

 Month of Growth - 8

    Every single gas globe in the building flicked off at once plunging us into darkness which was quickly lit by flying sparks as the ticksteel arsenal the Crawlers had acquired began to fire itself. Clockwork crossbows discharged at full speed, chain chakrams careened off the walls, bombs burst and filled the darkness with streaming fire and shrapnel. What was a second ago a ceremony became a bloody brutal riot as ferals turned on one another and operatives wrestled with their weapons. Bellows of ¡°Betrayal!¡± and ¡°Traitor!¡± arose on every side as the building became a warzone.


    I turned to congratulate Blood on her quick thinking just in time to see her vanishing in the distance towards the wall. She hit a side door, knocked it off its hinges and vanished out into the moonlight. At the time of course I couldn''t understand why, she loved to fight and she always took the time to gloat when her ideas worked out this well. But before I could do much more than wonder, Ara grabbed my hand and pointed upwards.


    ¡°There!¡±


    Looking up I saw the catwalk just above us even in the all consuming darkness, months of rooftop running had left me with eyes a cat would envy. Really to be honest with you it wasn''t much of a catwalk it was more like a hanging shelf formed by several pieces of in transit cargo that had just been left on their ropes when the warehouse went bust eons before. But it would do.


    I lead the way leaping onto a rack of tacky candelabras and using them like a staircase. When I hit the top I jumped kicking my legs madly in mid air and landed hard on what in retrospect I think was the hull of a fishing boat. Waving my arms for balance I ran along the back of a stuffed alligator then down and across a packing case full of fine china (left significantly less fine by our passing) and on and on we dashed from rope strung case to hanging crate across the room toward the ziggurat.


    Usually we would have been very conspicuous even in the darkness (three growing girls wearing steel toed shoes running along wood... not quiet) but luckily for us the riot below us was, if anything, growing more violent. The sound of madly firing crossbows and bursting bombs had been joined by the mad howling of ferals as, overwhelmed by blood and noise, they threw themselves at the operatives and each other desperately trying to tear apart anything and everything they could.


    As we neared the ziggurat I saw Red-Razor trying to restore order bellowing and threatening his men next to him I saw the Physician, still tied up, trying to inch away from the madman. As the rioters charged the platform, as Red-Razor turned towards his captive, we leapt.


    I attach a short excerpt here from Blood''s diary that I hope will help your understanding of the situation -Skull.


    Yes I know it''s cowardly.


    They were outnumbered a hundred to one and I''m the best fighter... I¡¯m supposed to be perfect. I have deadly flame magic, superhuman strength and speed, incredible regeneration and iron hard skin. I have all this... But it can''t help me against my own head.


    I know it''s cowardly but every hero has a weakness and I couldn¡¯t bear for them to see mine. They only saw the me that I wanted them to see, the laughing dancing Blood... the girl I have always wanted to be.


    But at that moment pathetic little Lilith was the only one home. I could feel the fear rising from the thick purple sweat pouring off my shiny red skin as my saliva began to taste like copper and acid.


    Yes I¡¯m perfect but I still ran. I can''t face that... thing and when I see it I get like this.


    I ran out of the room, kicking a door off its hinges... I think. Look I remember the exhaustion of running, the painful fear in my veins, my heart trying to beat its way through my rib cage but nothing much else until suddenly I was staring up at the moon. I knew I had been for a while, maybe three minutes as my sweat dried and my breath had returned but for that single perfect moment as the panic attack faded, as I came to my senses all I knew was the moonlight as the two sisters beamed down at me as glorious full moons.


    I turned away for a moment to pull my mask off and wretched into the gutter then I looked back at the moon''s entranced by its beauty as, behind me, the gutter slowly dissolved.


    Back to me... and I just want to say she isn¡¯t a coward. We all have weaknesses and none of us have ever thought less of her because of that.


    Anyway as I recall when I left you we were falling?


    I landed with a dull thud onto the very peak of the weird-pyramid thing[102] nearly spraining my ankle and just barely managing to roll. Nathanial Red-Razor stood unmoving across the platform from us, a shining steel razor held in a loose grip just above the Physician''s bowed head. The apothecary had been dragged back to the centre of the ziggurat by Red-Razor and his heavy iron manacles hastily chained to a hook in the stone floor. He raised his head up and stared as I landed.


    ¡°And who are you?!¡± Snarled the gangster in utter bewilderment. Being this close to him let me see something, something I couldn''t see before... The man was insane. He was polite, yes even charming maybe but he was also definitely totally and completely insane, rats in the attic level insane but the rats were dead and the attic was on fire.


    ¡°I''m Bright!¡± I said pointing at him with my mace in what I hoped was a defiant manner, ¡°and I''m one of the...¡± I paused and shrugged lamely. ¡°Look, we''ve not got a name yet... I¡¯ve come up with one but I think it might be a little violent and...¡±


    Nathanial looked at me for a long second then he burst out laughing, ¡°how... how...¡± he stopped and wheezed. ¡°How old are you girls?¡±


    I took a step back and glared at him. ¡°Old enough to know this is wrong.¡±


    He shrugged, ¡°and that''s where you¡¯re wrong, what I do... all that I do... every kill, every mission every drop of blood spilled and fury sold,¡± suddenly, as if a switch had flipped in his head, his languid stance evaporated and he hurtled towards me both razors drawn and flashing. ¡°I DO FOR THE TRUE GODS!¡±


    The steel blur flew towards my neck and I raised my mace to block it. In my defence I did block one but I forgot this guy had two razors. The first crashed off my mace head but the second carved a line down my bodice and across my chest. If I hadn''t been wearing light chainmail underneath my clothes I would have been standing knee deep in my own guts instead the razor deflected with a scream of metal on metal and I jumped backwards.


    Red-Razor didn''t of course; he just laughed and came at me faster both arms slashing and thrashing. I managed to knock away two more strikes but... I had forgotten this wasn''t a well paid guard or virtuous knight I was fighting but a hardened criminal, as far as they¡¯re concerned fair play is something that happens to other people. As I darted backwards he stepped up and lashed a boot into my knee knocking my leg out from under me, as I tottered he followed up with a kidney shot that left me panting for breath on the floor. I looked up terrified at the laughing maniac above me as he raised his blades then brought them both streaking down towards my throat. I don''t mind admitting I closed my eyes as my hand flew up reflexively to shield my face.


    *Swish* *Thump* *CRASH*


    For a long heartbeat I stayed frozen in place expecting at any second to feel a burst of white hot pain shoot through my arm as the razors struck home. Instead I felt nothing at all, not even a scratch. One heartbeat passed then two then three then finally I opened my eyes and looked up. Ara stood between me and Red-Razor, a single knife holding both of his razors on its blade, her hand wasn¡¯t even trembling.


    ¡°Get. Away. From. My. Friend!¡± Ara snarled and flew at him. Nathanial laughed and met her head on.


    Within seconds the two were locked in frantic combat, daggers flying and razors sparking and this time it wasn¡¯t only Nathanial who went for the cheap shots. You see, Skull and Blood had taught me how to fight, with a sword or fist, but the fighting was the important bit, the clash of will and still but Ara never bothered with fighting, just winning. All that mattered to her was making sure she was still standing at the end, no matter what. Even as I watched Nathanial stagger backwards from a flung torch, Ara tumbled and swore from a gouged kidney, Nathanial screamed and staggered from a kick to a particularly vulnerable part of his anatomy as Ara had to shield her face from a handful of flung sand. All in all the two engaged in the dirtiest and most brutal fight I had ever seen as they danced back and forth across the platform using every trick they had to injure, incapacitate and maim their opponent.


    Looking at them I wasted a second wondering if I could dart in and do... something but even as I thought that I realised I was being stupid and irresponsible. Ara had saved me instead of the Physician and so it became my job to rescue him in her place. I¡¯d lost track of Skull in all the confusion but she was a big girl and could handle herself so I ran past the fight, ignored the shadowy riot around me and slid to my knees next to the Physician.


    ¡°Do you know where the key is?¡± I asked, always a good question.


    Now I was close I could see how pale he was, he was far more scared than he had been letting on, but there was a spark of hope in his eyes now as he shook his head. ¡°One of them has it.¡± he muttered pointing into the fighting throng around us.


    ¡°Bugger.¡± I swore and then taking a firm grip on my mace I swung it at the padlock on his shackles. I know what you¡¯re thinking will happen and in the theatre this does result in an almighty clang and the lock falling off... but in real life the person whose wrist you¡¯ve just nearly broken swears at you as they fall over and your mace goes juddering out of your hands as your muscles lock in agony. I sat there on the floor rubbing life back into my fingers and watching as my precious weapon went skipping away across the warehouse floor.


    But I wasn¡¯t going to give up, not ever... Blood had taught me that. I dashed across the platform and ducked under a swung razor as Ara and Nathanial sailed past me. Ara was down a number of knives from her bandoliers I noticed but Red-Razor seemed to have lost both his smile and his scarf, I assumed the two were related.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Landing hard on the lip of the lit platform I swung my torso over the edge and leant downwards. Grabbing my mace I headshot an overly Inquisitive feral into unconsciousness with its pneumatic grappling hook and then dashed back to the Physician who cowered somewhat at my approach.


    ¡°Mrs Bright whilst I appreciate your help I¡¯d rather not have my wrists broken.¡± He whimpered as I grabbed his arm.


    ¡°I know,¡± I snapped, spinning my mace and grabbing the lock pick attachment. ¡°Hold still.¡±


    Grabbing the manacles I knew instantly I was in over my head now the lock itself wasn''t anything special, just a normal type three, but I had enough trouble getting through one of the training locks back at our base and that was in a nice bright quiet room completely devoid of dangerous people.... well actually that''s not true it had two very very dangerous people in it but they¡¯re my best friends so that doesn''t count.


    I cursed as a pin slipped; my variable spikes were beginning to bend under my clumsy caress.


    Realigning my mace I tried again sliding in the correct spike and nudging a tumbler just so.


    I nearly got it. I even heard the pin click, when the handle of my mace slipped out of my sweat slick grip. As I flailed my arms madly trying to catch the weapon, I lost my grip on the lock and then just to add insult to injury I heard the pin I had fixed pop back out again with an insolent pinging sound.


    I was just about ready to try smashing the lock again when I heard a girl scream behind me.


    I didn''t look around; instead I used the fear to steady myself pulling the cold out of my heart and pushing it into my hands which moved with careful purpose and a second later I heard a faint click.


    Then I looked around; readying my mace as I did so (and recapping the lock picks). Ara and Nathanial stood atop the ziggurat again, both blood and battered, I couldn''t see them being able to keep this fight up much longer but I had no idea how shortly it would end.


    As I watched, trying to see some way to help; some angle to charge in from, Ara made her move. She feinted low then cut high driving Red-Razor backwards, the man anticipated the move and swung around to readdress but Ara knew he¡¯d see through it and, wrapped in the muscular fin of her long tail, was a third dagger. There was a deafening clang of steel and the two fighters sagged, almost companionably, onto one another. After a moment they pushed away Ara with a long bloody cut across her belly and Nathanial with a knife embedded up to the hilt in his torso. He took three halting steps backwards then collapsed, lying there like a puppet with its strings cut; he seemed so small and old.


    Ara turned to us and smiled.


    I saw a flash of movement and my growing joy turned to abject panic in an instant. ¡°Watch out!¡± I bellow but it was already too late. Ara turned just in time to see one of the operatives level a crossbow[103] at her. My feet screeched on the floor as I ran toward her, but I was two slow... far too slow.


    I saw the operative¡¯s finger tighten, I saw Ara tense and then... I heard a sound like a colocia[104] nut being split and saw the operative collapse into a pain wracked heap. Behind him Skull sheathed a steel baton and nodded at us.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± she bellowed. ¡°We should have just enough time to get out!¡±


    And since few things are more potent than irony that was when the lights flickered back on.


    Aether disruptors are very potent tools. Incredibly dangerous (by one removal obviously) if used correctly since their hyper-aetheric field can both deactivate and overcharge all ticksteel in a large area; however eventually the excited aetheric particles fade away and the field... collapses.


    All across the warehouse clockwork crossbows ceased to blind fire, sputtering gas globes reignited pure and bright and just behind me I heard a number of very large gears begin to turn again.


    Even after all these years I remember that moment, I can see it when I close my eyes. Ara lifts the Physician onto one of her grey shoulders, his long white coat stained with grease and blood... her blood[105]. Skull charging towards me and tackling me to the floor with a yell and most vividly of all I remember the whistling crunch as the ground I had just been standing on was pulverised beneath a brass claw the size of a steam-carriage.


    Landing hard on the floor the older girl was able to drag me halfway down the ziggurat before I even got my breath back. As I was on my back being hauled away by my friend I realised just how deeply in trouble we were. With the shadows gone we had nowhere to hide, the ferals were still fighting each other but now that their crossbows weren¡¯t randomly killing people the operatives were restoring order bit by bit and cutting off any possible escape routes as they did so. The second the Crawlers got organised again they would overrun us... in the end our salvation came from the most unlikely source imaginable.


    A dozen metres above us lying on the top of the ziggurat Nathanial struggled and coughed then he managed to raise himself off the floor and took a tottering step towards us.


    ¡°You think... you think you can just... stop us... stop the true gods?¡± he laughed a long, low wheeze accompanied by a spray of blood; Ara must have hit a lung. ¡°Fools... the crimson kings are coming... soon... soon they will arrive... and... and then this pathetic city will fall.¡±


    Throwing his head back he took a deep wracking breath. ¡°GOLEM! INITIATE CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL... KEEP OUR SECRET... KILL EVERYONE IN THIS WAREHOUSE... STARTING WITH THAT HALF-BREED.¡± His last energies exhausted he tumbled backwards off the dais and down into the melee landing.... well where he landed will become apparent.


    Above us the Crawler rumbled as its inner gears came to life in a deafening symphony of metal, giant punch cards chattering like the rattling chains of the damned. The vast towering monstrosity, a golem worth more than a medium sized city and which stank of raw fish guts, raised its pincer like cargo lifters and stomped forwards slowly menace dripped from its every armour plate (along with sea water and some seaweed but mainly menace).


    I cast my eyes around the room but I still couldn''t see Blood; or an escape route. As I desperately scanned the shadows I caught a flicker of motion and a spike of panic shot through me. I turned and saw Ara (who was still trying to carry the Physician away) striding along obliviously as the Crawler loomed behind her. I tackled her (just as Skull had done for me) and rolled, just in time, the Crawlers claw missed us by inches, rather than flattening the brave gangster girl it only succeeded in crushing the Physicians coat flat (which actually gave it a very nice freshly ironed look).


    I quickly rolled Ara away from the Crawler and we scrambled to our feet both looking at each other. ¡°Thanks.¡± Ara managed to look up at me.


    ¡°Talk later, run now!¡± I bellowed, reaching down and pulling the Physician to his feet. Together the three of us dashed across the rapidly emptying warehouse, cultists they may be but the Crawlers weren¡¯t stupid; they had all heard the order their boss gave and they didn''t intend to stick around and get crushed by the golem. They poured out of the decrepit warehouse like rats fleeing a sinking ship leaving shattered windows and broken doors behind them.


    I pulled Ara towards one of these as quickly as I could. The two of us pounded across the vast open room, wove between crates and leapt over rigging. We were nearly there, nearly free, when a massive wooden cargo pallet fell from the sky and crashed into the ground before us. It landed so close that I half fell over as I tried to slow down, my hands shooting out instinctively to grab a handhold on the aisle shelves, I still wasn¡¯t quite fast enough and I smacked my forehead into the wooden debris hard enough to see stars. I would usually have complained at this treatment but I could see twitching hands and pooling blood leaking out from under the container so instead I thanked my lucky moons and staggered upright again. I briefly wondered why the Crawler hadn''t thrown another and finished us off but, as I helped Ara up, I saw why all too clearly.


    Skull was trying to fight the Crawler, now I knew she was brave and skilled but that was just suicide. She was darting around its legs like a wasp that had been immersed in coffee and set on fire, moving like living lightning as the Crawler brought its pincer down again and again trying to swat her. Even though she hadn''t been struck one I could see she was fighting a losing battle, she had to be lucky every time the Crawler only had to be lucky once.


    And of course as I thought that her luck finally ran out. Skull had spun around a stamping leg and thrown some sort of glowing blue rock at the crawler. The impromptu grenade exploded with a dull thump causing even this mighty machine to shudder but the blast had unbalanced her and as the Crawler pivoted she went to dodge... and tripped. And with that it was all over, sweeping its huge claw around in a flat arc the Crawler slapped Skull into the air and across the room like a mid-tantrum child throwing a doll. The black masked girl flew through the air and slammed into a crate next to me causing it to collapse into a pile of sawdust.


    I rushed over to Skull¡¯s side and pulled her upright with a significant effort (she is much taller than I am) and placed her on her feet. She managed to balance there for a moment and even wave her sword but then she began to sway drunkenly side to side. Even with her armoured mask the impact had obviously rattled her badly.


    ¡°We need to get out of here!¡± I bellowed as the Crawler stomped closer. ¡°Maybe we can...¡± Looking around I realised it was hopeless. Ara¡¯s stomach wound had opened up again in her flight and now she was half collapsed against a wall, one trembling arm holding the bloody tear together. Meanwhile Skull, usually nearly unflappable always with a plan or stratagem was just staring at me vacantly barely seeing the world as above us the golem loomed.


    Futility can do strange things to a person, make them laugh or cry, make them dance or run. People in a situation where death is certain have an admirable tendency to do anything and everything in their power to change this fact. I am sure you are all aware of this and as such no matter what Skull says I think my attempt to club the Crawler to death whilst ultimately futile was understandable.


    Yes... I know... building sized golems are not known for being overly vulnerable to teenage girls with maces but still I charged in, screaming like a banshee, and slammed my mace down with all my might onto a piece of the golems leg plating. I didn''t even dent it obviously; this automaton was designed to walk along the bottom of the sea. The pressure down there made my mace strike look like a falling leaf.


    As I came back to my senses I saw my hands were shaking, whether it was from terror or the bone jarring impact of mace on metal I couldn''t tell.


    I felt a deep shadow fall across me; looking up numbly I saw the huge pincer of the Crawler hovering over my head, ten tons of steel and brass ready to crush me utterly. The Crawler regarded me for a moment with its baleful candle lit eye holes then it snapped its claw once and brought it hammering down.


    I raised my hands futilely against the onrushing steel, closed my eyes and... I heard a crack like a whip and the grinding screech of metal under strain.


    ¡°Bright!¡±


    I opened my eyes and gasped. Less than a metre from my face was the Crawlers vast pincer but it was frozen in place and bound tight in... rope. Ordinary rope, hundreds or thousands of strands of ordinary rope in fact it looked like every piece of rope in the entire warehouse from old fishing nets to mooring lines had suddenly flown across the room and wrapped around the pincer clamping it back together and freezing it in place... somehow, that part I couldn¡¯t see whilst it was bound up and anchored to the nearby shelves the golem didn''t even seem to be trying to break the bounds instead it was staring at its own arm with an air of what almost looked like confusion.


    As I watched the Crawler seemed to reach a decision (which golems shouldn''t be able to do). It raised its other arm and snapped the pincer shut on the ropes, several ripped and twanged away but most stayed strong; for a moment the other pincer froze as well but, as it fell down limply, it suddenly came to life again and hacked at the ropes once more but the creaking threads held together bolstered by unbreakable... magic.


    ¡°Bright!¡± Bellowed the voice again.


    I turned and saw Ara hand outstretched pointing at the golem, the ropes around her chest writhing like a nest of vipers.


    ¡°I... I can''t hold it... much longer.¡± She gasped her hand trembling, I didn''t have time to question, to marvel instead I nodded and ran towards her. The second I left the shadow Ara sagged and behind me the Crawlers claw hammered into the floor sending up a spray of rock fragments and a cloud of dust.

 Month of Growth - 9

    I landed next to Ara as the girl swayed back to her feet. Skull for her part seemed to be recovering and even as I watched she shook her head vigorously then grabbed me and dragged me towards the wall as Ara waved a hand again. Behind us the Crawlers incoming swipe was once again blocked as the piles of rope reanimated and lashed out coiling around the massive metal claw, just like before the second the ropes struck the automata¡¯s limb it froze in place, not just bound but... drained. The golem seemed what can only be described as nonplussed by this development and I could hear loud banging echoing from inside its metal shell as new punch cards were tried and discarded by its internal mechanisms as it sought a solution.


    Ara looked at me sadly, her skin greyer than normal except across her stomach where deep red blood still dripped freely from her wound.


    ¡°I''m so sorry,¡± she cried her tears leaving black marks down her cheeks. ¡°I... I know you think I''m a monster... but please let me help you, let me save you, then you can do whatever you want with me.¡±


    I opened my mouth to reply or sooth or quite frankly I admit; to try to come up with some kind of clever action book quip but then as now I drew a complete blank and just stared at her vacantly until a snapping cracking noise drew my attention.


    The Crawler displayed frighteningly levels of intelligence for an automaton (I often wonder, with what we later found out about the Crawlers and their patron, just... what... the Crawler actually was) had come up with a plan. Its bound claw was entirely disabled, not just tied up but fully paralysed, so it had used its other pincer the limb upwards until the ropes went taught then letting go of its arm it had sliced the flat of its free pincer through the mass of hardened cable. Even with magic imbuing them they broke; with that distinctive twanging retort that all musicians fear.


    Ara stumbled to the floor, her skin suddenly crisscrossed by white pressure marks like the ones you get when pinched but these looked a lot more painful. Magical feedback can be really nasty, take it from me.


    ¡°Ara!¡± I yelled diving towards the falling girl as the Crawlers claw spun towards us. ¡°...get us out of here!¡± I saw the looming shadow of the golem, felt Ara¡¯s warmth in my arms, felt a strong hand cease my collar and, as the automata raised its claws again... we weren¡¯t there.


    I¡¯ve never gotten used to this, not in all the eons I¡¯ve known Skull and no matter how many times she uses her magic on me. Mirror-porting (as she calls it) feels really.... strange; there¡¯s no other word for it. I could go on about mirrors and angles and stuff but really what it''s like is a second of bright light and endless reflection then the world seems to melt around you as your body stops working and then you¡¯re somewhere else. It''s a lot like I¡¯ve always assumed getting drunk was like.


    The three of us were now standing across the warehouse and feeling slightly... well drawn out is the only way to describe it (a bit like a magical hangover to use my previous analogy) which I knew meant she¡¯d had to use a reflective surface rather than a mirror. I turned to regard a ridiculously large gong sitting on the ground next to us and for a second I found myself looking for something to hit it with, then I slapped myself (hurting my hand somewhat on my own mask) and turned to the others.


    ¡°Ara; Skull you both ok?¡± Yes I know a rather stupid and clich¨¦ question for someone with a gut wound and someone whose had just teleported five people across the length of a warehouse[106] but cut me some slack I was being chased by a giant killer golem and I still hadn''t had time to process that Ara was a mage.


    Ara was staring around herself in awe at the Physician hanging limply from one of her hands. Skull was bent double but even as she answered me she straightened up. ¡°Fine Bright.¡±


    ¡°I... I can''t, I mean... it''s usually just the ropes that I...¡± babbled Ara with an edge of hysteria in her voice. ¡°I... I didn''t know I could do that!¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t,¡± I said, leaning over the girl and taking her hand. ¡°We can.¡± And I let my magic flow out. The golden light poured from my skin and into Ara like molten gold, it washed across and into every scrap and scratch and bloody wound wiping them away like the sea washes away a sandcastle.


    Ara looked up at me, her eyes as wide as saucers and still dripping black tears like twin rivers but she managed a smile, it was small and scared yes but it was brave as well. ¡°You¡¯re... you... you can''t be...Like me?¡± She looked between the two of us. ¡°....I knew there was a reason I thought you were cute.¡± That last was said with obviously forced joviality as she tried to press down her mounting terror and puzzlement but I didn''t like to point that out at the time, she was having enough trouble holding herself together without me commenting on it.


    I smiled (although it was hidden by my mask) and clapped her on the shoulder ¡°Yeah we¡¯re all mages and it doesn¡¯t change who we are... or you for that matter are. Now I''m sorry to say this but we really don''t have time for a full pep talk since a huge crab golem of doom is bearing down on us as we speak.¡±


    Even as I spoke the distant sound of grinding gears and shattering wood, that we all now knew heralded the Crawler¡¯s arrival, was growing steadily nearer.


    ¡°The warehouse is nearly empty,¡± reported Skull peeking around a crate. ¡°Seems even cultists have a survival instinct.¡±


    ¡°Which means I...we can use our magic right?¡± asked Ara with a somewhat childlike level of glee, I think she was wilfully trying to put out of her mind the utter terror of the situation. ¡°Nobody''s watching us!¡±


    ¡°Quite so,¡± agreed Skull. ¡°And even if any do see something they are the very definition of unreliable witnesses.¡±


    I nodded and allowed myself to smile. ¡°Right but remember we don''t know where Blood is so.... aim.¡±


    The deafening cracking of wooden crates reached a crescendo and we saw the spinning teeth of huge gears protruding over the top of the nearest wall of crates and boxes. I just managed to haul Ara to her feet as the Crawler arrived.


    It didn''t even bother smashing aside the wall of crates; it just stomped straight through them; grinding them into sawdust as it charged. Ara didn''t hesitate despite her confusion instead she laughed, not like Blood who even I have to admit sounds maniacal and insane, instead Ara sounded... pure. She launched herself forwards, slid under a great scything claw and skimmed between its piston-like legs. As the golem tried to turn Ara waved a hand, instantly the ropes on the floor struck out at the automaton lashing into its gear filled leg joints binding the moving teeth into immobility and freezing the golem in place, even the rattling of its punch cards sounded slower and quieter. I wanted to applaud (probably old hat to you magic like this but remember this was only the fourth mage I¡¯d seen in my whole life I was very impressed... well technically she was the fifth... but I don''t like talking about that and the others didn''t know yet).


    Unfortunately this thing was smart; far smarter than a golem should be and this time it didn''t even pause to think. It simply pulled the two afflicted legs up (again the legs themselves seemed entirely paralysed but its pincers weren¡¯t) tightening the ropes and then it snipped through both knotted bunches. This time around it was free in seconds and Ara would have probably been in a lot of trouble but this time she wasn''t alone.


    Skull reached over my shoulder and pulled the reflection off the gong. Yes you read that right and yes it looked very disturbing, the gong was left matte and dull without any shine on its metal and Skull was holding a writhing puddle of light and rippling air which she hurled at Ara. As the Crawler punched forwards with a claw the ripple struck the air in front of the half-breed and expanded like water being poured onto a flat surface becoming a perfectly circular mirror that hung unsupported in the air.


    The Crawlers huge metallic limb slammed into the magical mirror and its own reflection exploded out. The two vast arms met like charging armies; with a shower of sparks and a deafening clang then they burst apart. The mirrored arm flickered in the air for a moment then vanished as Skull lost her grip on the magic[107].


    As the golem staggered backwards I reached to my belt and, thanking my forethought, pulled out a handful of seeds and hurled them at the automaton. As they flew through the air I focused on them and willed my magic towards them. The seeds shattered; becoming balls of growing expanding greenery even as they hit the metal of the Crawler. For a second they looked like some sort of strange green toupee on its carapace before they hooked their roots in and began to grow in earnest. The Crawler honestly seemed surprised to find itself in the middle of a small copse of weeping willows, it froze in place and even its back mounted locomotion gears stopped moving but only for a heartbeat, all too soon the dreadful mechanical chattering returned.


    ¡°Come on!¡± I bellowed, grabbing Ara by the shoulder. ¡°That won¡¯t hold it for long...¡±


    ¡°...And yet I still think you overestimate yourself.¡± Cut in Skull as a flying spray of splinters shot past us (whilst I can grow a tree in a single second I sometimes forget they aren¡¯t any stronger than a normal tree unless I keep pumping magic into them... oh well life is a learning experience).


    For a few heartbeats we didn''t move a muscle, just stared at the golem as it raised its huge claws high... then Skull broke out of her stupor ¡°Run!¡± She howled, grabbing me and Ara and dragging us along another crate lined aisle. Sprinting through a faintly lit warehouse filled with illegal weapons in poorly sealed crates and echoing with the whining gears of a rampaging murder golem made me wish I had someone to pray to.... or failing that another Aether-Disruptor would have done instead all I could do was run like the Abyss was drawing me in.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    We managed to gain a lead on the great clanking golem quite easily. It was strong and unbelievably tough but it definitely wasn''t fast. Sliding under a rack of toppled axes and leaping over a box marked Clockwork Grenades that was (somewhat worryingly) ticking loudly we reached Skulls destination. It was one of the actual walls of the warehouse made from porcelain plated stone and reinforced heavily lacquered wood. Before we could comment on it, Skull, who was still hauling us like children by our hands I will point out, kicked open a small side door (mandated by the current Senator of the Extinguishers[108]) and dashed through.


    Dragged out into the night I found myself enveloped once again in the stink of fish guts and salt as before me stretched the desolate docks and the living ocean. For a second I felt genuinely hopeful seeing the sea again... then Skull collapsed in front of me[109]. I scrambled to stop, my boots skidding on the sea slicked steps as my arm was dragged down by my falling friend. I found myself suddenly having to shift a whole girl''s worth of dead weight and I desperately tried to haul her back to her feet as the Crawler grew ever closer. If it hadn''t been for Ara I honestly think it would have got us. She arrived at that second and lifted Skull up one handed, dropping her back on her feet and lacing her huge grey arm under the girl¡¯s right one.


    ¡°She''s out of it. Your call!¡± Ara snapped at me in such a tone of natural authority that I obeyed without thinking


    Looking around at the moonlit tiles and the distant glowing windows I tried to think back to all the lectures Skull had given me on tactics, ¡°aim for that,¡± I yelled pointing at the mouth of a tiny grubby alleyway some hundred metres distant. ¡°It can''t follow us in there and it¡¯s going to take it an eon to open that door, we¡¯re going to be ok!!¡± One day it is my fondest hope I will learn to stop saying things like that.


    Behind us the warehouse wall exploded. Huge chunks of wood and stone slammed into the ground around me and skittered away causing the cobbles to shatter into even more flying shards. Desperately I planted my feet squarely and spun, I managed a frankly balletic twist if I may say so, swaying back from the explosion of sawdust and porcelain splinters and coming to an unharmed halt a full ten metres away. Looking back I saw Skull still clinging onto Ara both just barely behind the cover of the plaza fountain, I half waved at the two girls (to reassure them... pointlessly as it turns out) then turned back towards the warehouse... just in time to see the boulder sized mass of reinforced wood and metal that hammered into my head and smashed me to the floor.


    For a handful of heartbeats I lost consciousness; then I found it again; and a lot of pain along with it. Flicking my eyes open I hissed at the agony of my ribs which felt like grinding shards of ice in my chest as I breathed (luckily this went away after like ten minutes)[110]. Propping myself up on my elbows with effort I found my mouth was filling with blood and that a horrific dull ache had started in my temple.


    ¡°Bright!¡± I looked up painfully, my neck snapping and twanging as I moved and saw Skull kneeling in front of me with even her legendary cool in tatters. ¡°Oh god... we thought you were dead!¡±


    Each grabbing one of my arms, Ara and Skull hauled me out of the wreckage just as the last chunk of wall was shattered and the Crawler clanked out into the moonlight. The stinking clanking monstrosity scuttled sideways out of the ruined wall moving with a disturbingly crab-like gait. It spun almost gracefully on the spot and snapped its huge claws at us; I swear it was enjoying this.


    I was pulled to my feet by my two friends and we stared up at the automaton. It began to prowl across the square slowly, obviously daring us to run again but I couldn¡¯t.  My bruised[111] ribs throbbed with agony on each breath whilst Skull was favouring one leg and looked ready to collapse again. We couldn¡¯t fight this thing and it knew it.


    For a second my eyelids fluttered closed; I forced them open again with an effort of will to find Ara stood before me. She brandished a pair of knives each less than a pin to the steel beast bearing down on us. I could see that her hands were trembling slightly. ¡°Leave them alone! It¡¯s me you want.¡±


    The Crawler slowed for a second and then from somewhere deep inside its bulk a voice sounded; a familiar shrieking preaching voice we had heard all too recently.


    ¡°GOLEM! INITIATE CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL... KEEP OUR SECRETS.... KILL EVERYONE IN THIS WAREHOUSE, STARTING WITH THAT HALF-BREED... EVERYONE... STARTING... EVERYONE... KILL¡±


    As Nathanial¡¯s message faded away I felt the pounding vibration of the Crawlers feet again. The fountain we were sheltering behind was brushed into pottery shards with a claw the size of a cart and I looked up into the blank metallic face of the crawler which somehow still managed to convey bloodlust filled excitement as it raised both its pincers high.


    ¡°Anyone got any ideas?¡± Skull asked, looking at the two of us with weary resignation.


    Ara shook her head hopelessly. I opened my mouth to speak but at the last second a noise stopped me, on the wall above me a raven was crowing.


    ¡°Yes,¡± said a voice behind me, a voice as sweet as sin and as soft as silk. ¡°Get out of the way.¡±


    I didn''t even turn, I just hurled myself to the floor slamming into Ara on the way down; we landed in a heap with Skull (who obviously had the same idea). Writhing like fish I managed to half roll and look up just as the light flared.


    Blood stood there her mask askew, the moons silhouetting her and in each of her hands was a ball floating ball of flaming blood. With a snarl of effort she flung her hands out and a barrage of glowing bolts slammed into the giant automaton making it stagger backwards. Just like before it froze for a moment as the fireballs struck it.


    Blood sagged slightly but kept standing as she looked at us.


    ¡°You do know I''m nowhere near strong enough to kill this thing alone right?¡± She asked us. ¡°GET UP YOU IDIOTS AND HELP ME!¡±


    Something in her tone grabbed me by the lapels and pulled me to my feet making me forget my own exhaustion. If I¡¯d ever doubted that she was a fellow noble I didn''t know, that voice was the voice of one born to be obeyed and I wasn¡¯t going to let her show me up. I drew on every iota of magic I could hold within me then let it burst out in an explosion of golden light that struck all four of us healing, reinforcing, bolstering.


    ¡°What¡¯s the plan?¡± Blood asked Skull, keeping her rapier raised.


    Skull ever the tactician thought for a moment and nodded to herself. ¡°Magic seems to affect it... I don''t know how but each time a spell hits the thing it freezes up or slows down, we just need to keep pouring magic into it until we overload its punch-core and then...¡±


    ¡°Then we melt it and dance in the puddle,¡± finished Blood with an unnecessary degree of amusement in her voice. ¡°Got it!¡±


    The Crawler seemed to dislike that plan and it spun on the spot with a staccato hammering of legs and swung a pincer down hard onto Blood, the tiny red figure vanished under the multi-ton armature. Reflexively I levelled a glowing hand and poured my magic into her feeling bones bending... and then unbending under my ministrations.


    ¡°Ahhhhh!¡± Blood screamed and exploded out from under the massive claw running up its gear studded arm, pausing for a moment she waved her arms and coated her blades in a layer of burning magical blood. ¡°Time to get smelting!¡± She crowed and struck.


    The flash of light lit up the dock as metal screamed on metal and one of the Crawlers vast back mounted gears went spinning away. For a moment I saw flame blooming in the machine''s guts and as before the golem stalled for a second but after a mere handful of moments the golem rumbled back to life and this time it seemed... angry. It twisted on the spot with a sound like a lead piano being played and swatted Blood in midair with all its strength. As mentioned (many times before) Blood is tiny and she flew like a thrown ball down half the length of the deserted dock before a discarded fishing net lashed upwards like a whip and caught her out of the air dragging her back down to the floor with slightly less than bone breaking force.


    ¡°Oww... Thank you Ara.... maybe slightly more gently next time... please?¡±


    Even as Blood began to laboriously lever herself upright, Skull charged in. The black clad girl twirled her sabre like a conductor¡¯s baton weaving a gleaming trail around the great lumbering automaton hacking off plates and pistons, gears and wheels. Each time the Crawler tried to round on her Skull stepped into its own polished armour and disappeared; walking out of its opposite flank and attacking again and again as the armoured limbs froze and stilled around her.


    Then... her sabre stuck in the edge of the huge armour plate that covered its central core. For a second I began to panic then I heard Skull laugh, ¡°Got it!¡± She crowed and with a great heaving motion she pried open the metal. ¡°Now!¡±


    ¡°Right!¡± called Ara and grabbing the end of her rope webbing she pulled the entire wrap exploded away from her torso (leaving just her rather ugly dock workers shirt that I swear was tailored for a man) and lashed out through the air like the striking tail of a scorpion. The hugely heavy whip of aged rope smashed into the hole in the automatons armour like a thunderbolt sending shattered chunks of gears and fragments of other delicate internal mechanisms flying in every direction. The great behemoth was launched backwards by the assault and landed in a sprawled heap at the end of the pier. Without getting up it began to make a deep chattering lowing sound that was disturbingly... pain filled; for a machine I mean.


    The golem didn''t move, apart from the strange screeching hissing sound it was completely still, I thought we¡¯d won and I was already opening my mouth to make a witty comment[112] when somewhere inside the golem there was a crackling sound like lightning. The entire automaton shuddered and then without warning it exploded back into motion one claw raised it back to its feet as the other swung out and crushed Skull... or would have if Blood hadn''t shoulder charged her out of the way a fraction of a second before it hit.


    Looking up I saw the Crawler limp in a circle and turn towards me. Its cargo ramp ¡°mouth¡± now hung half open dripping oil and steam; its few remaining gears clicked madly side to side, some missing teeth some entirely stripped. It raised its pincers and tried to clack them but only one would open, it examined the other for a moment then turned to look at us. Golem though it was, I saw true hate in its blazing eyes as the candles within them guttered for a second. Slowly, pointedly, it took a step towards us.


    ¡°Oh this thing SO has to die.¡± Muttered Blood scrambling to her feet on my left, Skull disentangled herself from the younger girl and nodded.


    ¡°Koth yes!¡± She snarled.


    ¡°And it¡¯s going to,¡± spat Ara as her ropes coiled back into her hands. ¡°Right?¡±


    The three of them looked at me and I felt just an inkling of what my life would be like; just for a moment I remember feeling this sense of... belonging; and just like that I finally had the words.


    ¡°Right! Let¡¯s show what happens when it messes with the Blade Brigade!¡± I yelled and we charged.


    The poignant and thrilling moment was only slightly undermined by Blood muttering. ¡°I could have thought up a better name.¡±

 Month of Growth - 10

    ¡°You know.... it made a great smuggler and as an engine of terror it had no equal; but I think it works best as a brazier.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡±


    The fight was like something from an ancient epic. Skull had been right of course; our magic was doing something to the Crawler and as we poured in more and more the automata slowed and weakened. Fighting side by side we drove it back to the edge of the warehouse, bound it in ropes and vines, shattered its carapace and threw a fireball into its heart. The explosion was the talk of the dock spur for a month and it lit up the night for miles shattering windows; scaring cats and generally causing utter bedlam. As the glow faded the Crawler finally lay still and never moved again[113].


    And that brings us back to the present with the four of us arranged gasping and groaning around the machine''s burning carcass.


    As usual Blood had come out of the fight the worst. She was lying crumpled on the floor only lifting her head up weakly to make sarcastic comments at intervals; and most of those were delivered with odd punctuation thanks to coughs or pain filled moans. I desperately wanted to help her but mages just know how much magic we have left and I didn''t have anywhere near enough to heal the oddly resistant Blood. I remember just praying to any god that would listen that her unusual resilience would keep her alive until I got my magic back.


    I wasn''t the only one worrying about her though. Skull was sitting on the floor next to Blood cradling her head in her lap and engaging in a bit of very gentle back and forth with her whilst Ara just stood transfixed off to one side. Every few seconds she turned to stare alternatively at the burning golem or at us her rope bandana swinging each time she turned her head.


    After a minute or two during which we just stood or sat nearly mute with exhaustion I sighed and hauled myself to my feet.


    ¡°Right as pleasant as it sounds, we can''t just stay here for the rest of our lives. Let''s grab the Physician and get out of here before the Crawlers come back... oh and we should tell that watch....¡±


    ¡°You think they¡¯re gonna come back?¡± cut in Blood in a husky wheeze. ¡°Their boss ordered the giant golem to kill them!¡±


    ¡°Maybe some of them are idiots?¡± I shrugged as Blood muttered something I couldn''t hear[114]. ¡°Regardless, I don''t want to spend any longer here than I absolutely have to.¡±


    ¡°Seconded.¡± Skull grunted sliding gracefully to her feet and then slowly hoisting the exhausted Blood up after her. Blood looked like death not just like ¡°oh she''s a bit worn down¡± but more like ¡°oh thank god she''s wearing a mask.¡± She couldn''t even stand up unaided and yet she¡¯d twice had to crawl to the edge of the pier to be sick, I remember feeling like a total monster for making her get up.


    ¡°Oh Blood you should stay here I''m sure Skull or I could stay with you and then Ara and the others could go grab...¡±


    ¡°I''m fine!¡± she muttered; as weak as a kitten and as faint as a breeze. ¡°I''m perfect after all... let¡¯s just get this over with before I faint... again.¡±


    ¡°Blood.¡± Murmured Skull sadly, Blood ignored her and began to stagger towards the collapsed warehouse. The three of us looked at one another then followed her, Skull stuck to her like a shadow obviously ready to catch her if she fell.


    This proved more than necessary as she collapsed the second she tried to pry open the warehouse''s ruined door. Skull grabbed her with a sigh as I jammed my maces into the blackened door jam and levered it apart revealing the half burned, half crushed, mostly blood soaked interior... Seriously, it looked like an abattoir that had been caught in a forest fire then stamped on by a giant. We spent a moment retching at the combined stink of smoke and blood before we pushed our way inside; kicking drifts of crumbling crate aside and stepping over the huge puncture/craters of the Crawlers footsteps.


    It took us a few equal parts boring and terrifying minutes to cross the ruined warehouse and make it to the half collapsed isle we had teleported to and in the end we might never have found it if it wasn''t for the fact that we could still see the gleaming upper edge of the huge copper gong protruding from the drifts of ash.


    Ara pulled ahead of us as we neared the isle, sprinting around the huge stack of shelves and then gasping in relief. We rounded it seconds later to see her pulling the Physician upright. The old man was wild eyed and stared at her; and us, like we were monsters from his darkest nightmare.


    ¡°Are you ok?¡± I asked him slowly, keeping my voice level. The Physician just shook, I think he was trying to shake his head but his whole body trembled; like a man made of jelly on the back of a wild horse.


    ¡°We¡¯ve got you Phys,¡± said Ara, sound almost back to her old self as she pulled her mask down. ¡°Let me just...¡± The man darted back from her outstretched hand and let out a hoarse whining sound.


    ¡°Is he concussed?¡± Skull asked, looking over Ara¡¯s shoulder.


    ¡°I can''t see in this light.¡± Replied Ara distractedly and just like that the area around us lit up with a dark red glow.


    Skull was the first to act and her action was to smack Blood hard on the top of her head. ¡°YOU ARE NEARLY DEAD FROM BLOOD LOSS!¡± She bellowed causing Blood to stagger back and the glowing fireball in her hand to flicker.


    ¡°Ok Ok I''m dying not deaf...¡± she shook her head hard. ¡°...Besides, it''s worth it.¡±


    ¡°How could it be worth it? You¡¯re...¡±


    ¡°De...¡±


    We cut off the brewing argument and turned to see the Physician trying to shape words.


    ¡°Phys,¡± murmured Ara, looking at him with wide eyes. ¡°Phys... I...¡±


    ¡°DEMONS!¡± He bellowed and tried to drag himself away from us. ¡°MAGES! DON''T COME ANY CLOSER! LEAVE ME ALONE!¡± He slammed into the wall and made a small animal whimper, leaping to his feet he ran away from us into the choking smoke.


    ¡°Phys!¡± Ara sounded heartbroken and I found my arm instinctively wrapping around her grey shoulders.


    ¡°Well that surprises absolutely no one.¡± Muttered Blood behind us. I was about to retort when the light went out and I heard Skull curse and catch something so instead I just sighed.


    ¡°Ara...¡± I couldn¡¯t think of anything to say, ¡°look there''s a door back there the one Blood blew open earlier.¡± and that was a question for another time I remember thinking, ¡°he¡¯ll get out safe let¡¯s get you home.¡±


    ¡°What home?¡± she said looking at her feet. ¡°Phys.... No way he¡¯ll keep the fact I¡¯m a mage quiet the gang will kill me; or hand me over to the Inquisition.¡±


    ¡°We can make it back quicker than him right?¡± asked Skull behind me. ¡°If Bright heals Blood we could get back first and... maybe we could accuse him of being a mage and get him kicked out instead? Or at least make him an unreliable witness.¡±


    Ara shook her head sharply. ¡°I won¡¯t do that to him, the gang''s all he''s got.¡±


    ¡°And you?¡± I asked quietly.


    Ara didn''t reply for a moment then she thumped a fist into the wall, ¡°slet!¡± she yelled. ¡°I¡¯ve been with them for eons... EONS! I was so careful never to stand out to be... normal.¡±Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Ara turned to me and I realised she was a lot older than she looked, I could see it in her eyes now that all traces of her normal levity were gone, ¡°all I did was help them, all I did was keep them safe,¡± she snarled and kicked a piece of rubble away. ¡°I''m the reason no one¡¯s ever successfully invaded our base! No one even questioned why I asked for all the rooms to be re-floored with rope.¡±


    ¡°Oh that''s how you found us,¡± murmured Blood behind me, it sounded like she was talking through a rag and the weak voice was coming from floor level. ¡°I thought I hadn¡¯t made any sound, knew I was perfect.¡±


    ¡°Not the time Blood.¡± Replied Skull affectionately.


    ¡°Always time for me!¡± Blood wheezed cheerfully.


    Ara smiled at that and shook her head. ¡°Right we need to get moving if we¡¯re fast we can get back to base before Phys then we grab Brights friend and leg it. She¡¯ll need to take it easy for a few cycles at home but Phys knows his medicine.¡±


    ¡°Oh thank Koth,¡± I mumbled, feeling my shoulders lift. ¡°She''s ok?¡±


    ¡°She was still asleep when I left but Phys said she¡¯d be safe to wake soon and she¡¯ll be safer with you than in a district that''s going to be purged.¡± Ara trailed off and sighed.


    ¡°Maybe we can show them the Crawler?¡± asked Skull hopefully. ¡°Would that stop them?¡±


    ¡°They don''t even know the Crawler exists,¡± said Ara morosely. ¡°We¡¯d need their boss for that who¡¯s probably sat pretty in a safe house by now with his gang...¡±


    Ara sighed again louder and looked around her gaze downcast, ¡°they were... they were my whole life.¡± She whispered.


    The three of us clustered around her. Well me and Skull clustered, Blood just came along because Skull was holding her princess style in her arms.


    The tall grey skinned girl looked up at us with a strange vulnerability in her face, ¡°I... I don''t suppose... You have room for one more member... Do you?¡±


    The three of us looked at one another.


    ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Yes.¡±


    Our voices harmonised perfectly.


    Aras'' wide eyes swam with black tears and she leapt towards us, catching us in her arms and hugging us as hard as she could. I felt the tension draining out of her as I hugged her back and as she realised it would all be ok.


    *Cough*


    I looked down and swore, I kicked the pile of ash we were standing around and it coughed again the cinders falling away from his face.


    ¡°Is that Red Razor?¡±


    ¡°Yup.¡±


    ¡°Bugger.¡±


    I will insert a short... well intermission here from a certain women¡¯s diary that I found both insightful and hilarious; in both cases far too much to deny you the pleasure of reading it as well.


    Enjoy.


    What follows is an excerpt from the diary of Lydia Melton[115].


    The 40th of Wilt in 11301.


    Dear Diary,


    You remember when I said that I was scared of my new walk home? Well my brother was wrong about it being paranoia.


    I got attacked; it was terrifying... I¡¯ve never been that scared before. I had just gotten into the north dock spur in a little offloading district called Trade Winds when... when[116]... a load of horrific gangsters burst out of an alley.... they chased after me and started howling like animals.... I ran as fast as I could and tried to get away... I lost my precious new scarf in all the confusion then... then they cornered me in an alley and.... one of them stabbed me.


    Big brother won¡¯t leave me alone but it¡¯s barely noticeable just a few little scars on my belly; nothing worse. After that I passed out and I don''t know what would have happened if I wasn''t rescued by those amazing heroes!


    I woke up in this weird little stuffy room in a harbour building. It was falling apart covered in mould and its floor was like these big old looking ropes; all in all it was horrible.


    I was in a bed and someone had taken my dress and skirts off... in fact all I had on were my small clothes![117] I was terrified, I was obviously in some horrific gang hideout where they planned to do Koth knows what to me but then my heroes arrived!


    The entire wall just went *Bam* and collapsed and these four strange people walked in. They were all women and seemed about my age, three of them were dressed in these strange outfits a bit like the clothing the arrogant nobles wear to those wasteful masques but these were much less ostentatious and looked more like armour (and my grandpa was a soldier so I know what I''m talking about) whilst the fourth was covered nearly entirely in a big leather traveller¡¯s cloak with ropes wound around her arms and hands.


    At the front of the group was a girl dressed all in red that was covered in plaster dust, she patted it off herself and then looked at me and said. ¡°Come with us if you want to live.¡±


    So of course I tried to get out of bed as fast as I could but I pulled something in my chest and barely managed to sit up. One of the others dressed all in black turned to the red dressed one and said ¡°Look what you did Brood.¡± I think it was brood? Anyway the black dressed girl walked over to me and helped me up; she was really tall and really kind.


    ¡°Sorry Skulk.¡± Said Brood and she helped me out of the hole in the wall. She was incredibly strong, even stronger than my brother. I could lean my whole weight on her and she didn''t even seem to notice, by the end she was just carrying me over the rubble and out into the night.


    They moved really fast and with Brood carrying me I could keep up easily but after a few minutes and a dozen or so streets I asked her to put me back down so I could get my balance and stretch my legs out.


    The lady in ropes (who seemed older than the others but that might have just been because of how tall and big she was, skulk was tall as well but thin whereas this lady was strong looking) walked over to me and handed me a sweet; a tiny little sugar twist in a white wrapper. ¡°Here you go cutie.¡±


    I was very happy to have something to eat as my stomach was rumbling in a distinctly unladylike fashion but I hesitated even so. I''m not in the habit of accepting food from strangers after all but as I stood there weighing the risks the woman handed another sweet to the one called Brood and said. ¡°Don''t think I don''t see that look¡±


    Brood seemed happy as well and turned away from me for a moment to press the sweet up and under her mask saying. ¡°Thanks Swings[118].¡±


    After a moment, Swings turned back to look at me and I decided that if they were going to harm me they would have done so by now so I popped the sweet in my mouth. It was delicious, like some of those little dainties I swipe from the noble scum occasionally, but this tasted even better possibly because I wasn''t standing near any of them. I smiled at Swings who nodded back at me.


    ¡°You deserve something nice after all you¡¯ve been through.¡± She said by way of explanation.


    I wanted to ask about what I had been through exactly when the white dressed one interrupted us. She had been hanging around at the very back of the group and came running forwards waving and pointing back towards the building they had saved me from. I thought it was strange that she wasn''t saying anything but Brood apparently found this hilarious. She nearly fell over with laughter as the white girl stood there glaring at her with her arms crossed. After a moment Brood straightened back up and waved at me, ¡°sorry about that Night is just hilarious is all,¡± the girl said breathlessly. ¡°She''s a real hoot at parties.¡±


    Night waved a hand at me frantically then went back to glaring at Brood who actually did fall over this time. I was beginning to feel a bit more relieved already, these heroes seemed to be treating this so... well lightly.


    Eventually Night got fed up with Brood laughing and went and kicked her in the ribs until she stopped and got up again. After a moment Skulk (who had been skulking around the street I guess that''s why they called her that) gestured at the other three and they all set off. Brood and Swings kept close to me and Night lagged behind a bit, I think she was shy.


    As we walked through the nighttime streets I found myself feeling very much reassured and comforted by the presence of these strange people. Usually I felt so scared in the dark alleys even before being chased by criminals but they seemed so strong.


    I asked them where we were going and they just replied. ¡°We¡¯re taking you home.¡± I was nearly overcome; these kind strange heroes had rescued me from some vile gang¡¯s lair and were now leading me safely back home through this dark night. They obviously knew the way and when I asked they confirmed that they had asked my brother for my route home, Brood said that Skulk had gone and asked him and Night had found out about me being missing to begin with! I smiled at Night who seemed like she was very shy because she just waved at me and didn''t speak, quite friendly but very shy.


    It only took an hour before we were at my door, the sun wasn''t even up yet but I could hear my brother pacing and worrying inside our house. I gasped out thank you to all four of my rescuers and threw my arms around Brood and Swings (Skulk seemed a bit too cold for that and I didn''t want to startle Night) who both seemed happy. After a moment we parted and they gestured for me to go into my home as they slunk backwards into the shadows of the night and effortlessly scaled the wall opposite my house.


    It was only then that I realised I had failed to ask the most important question.


    I called after the four strange heroes and asked who they were and why they¡¯d bothered to protect me; rescue me even. Maids don¡¯t tend to get bodyguards and those spoiled brats I cared for certainly wouldn''t have paid for my rescue... I suppose Delilah might have tried but her father would never let her waste their money like that.


    In the end Brood was the one who replied with a flourish and a bow.


    ¡°We are the Blade Brigade; Lydia and we¡¯re here to protect Prasus.¡±


    And just like that they vanished into the dark tangled mess of tiles and pipes on the rooftops but I felt different... I felt changed. The pain and fear was gone and I felt like doing; something! I''m not sure what yet but I''m going to be like them! I''m going to help Prasus![119]

 Month of Growth - 11 and Interlude

    Ara (who would forever be Ara to me rather than Strings) was being shown around the hideout by Skull who seemed to be enjoying playing tour guide both for the fact she could show off how much she had learned about our base in a single season and because it gave her time to interrogate Ara about her magic. Skull has always loved learning but magic was special to her.


    So with those two tramping around the house loudly chatting (some lines of Skulls I still remember are ¡°Where did that door go?¡± ¡°Have you ever hung someone?¡± and ¡°Don''t mind the raven droppings.¡±) I was sitting downstairs in our living room. A fire roared in the grate, every few minutes I tossed in another log causing the fire to grow and grow until I felt my boots charring.


    The reason for this new obsession with heat was Blood; lying half-comatosed next to me on our blue silk sofa (another piece of liberated noble property[120]). She was trembling slightly even as I stacked the fire higher and higher like she was standing in the teeth of a gale.


    Looking away from her I cast my eyes around our parlour the fire light flickered off our trophy cases, long golden candlesticks, drapes of multi-coloured silk and fur and all our other looted ornamentations that shone like a million Lire (and was probably worth somewhere in the two million range). I know it sounds beautiful and opulent but really it looks like someone had sprayed the contents of a pawn shop with gold paint then emptied an abattoir into it... but I like to reflect on the good we¡¯d done and the nobles we¡¯ve ruined when I''m nervous and I was feeling really nervous.


    ¡°Hey Blood... are you awake?¡± I asked her, leaning over the tiny shaking girl.


    She rolled her head to the side and gazed up at me. ¡°No.¡± She said her voice was unusually flat and emotionless but with an edge of a smile that was almost worse to hear; I could feel the pain in her voice. Her magic truly is a double edged sword.


    ¡°How are you doing?¡± I asked don''t worry I felt bloody stupid the second I closed my mouth. ¡°I mean... are you... I...¡±


    Blood stopped my stammering with a limply raised hand. ¡°I¡¯ll live, you know I heal quickly.¡±


    ¡°Hey um...,¡± I didn''t know how to ask or if I should so I just did, ¡°...After you used the aether disruptor you ran away, you never usually run from a fight... I mean... were you ok? Did you get hurt? Is there anything I can do to help?¡±


    I stammered into silence and Blood looked away from me slightly. ¡°Oh I just remembered I had a library book to return you know what the Schola Librarius is like, bunch of blood sucking fascists, and we need to keep our noses clean in our maskless identities. We don''t want to attract the Order do we? Or the Koth damned Tribunal, so I just took a little walk around the block and...¡±


    ¡°Blood,¡± I said using the most maternal tone I could. ¡°You don''t have to answer me if you don''t want to, I''m not going to force you, but please don''t deflect. I¡¯m your friend; you can trust me.¡±


    Blood looked up at me and tilted her head slightly to the side then before I could react she reached up and pulled my face down to hers. She gently tapped her masked forehead against mine and for a second we were both still looking into each other¡¯s eyes (well eye sockets).


    ¡°Thanks Bright....¡± She said, ¡°One day... I might... but not today.¡±


    We stayed like that for a long moment. I could feel her glove on my neck and I could feel how weak the fingers within were and that scared me but looking into her eyes (or at least the red glass eye covers of her mask) I could feel her strength still there. If anyone could survive this magic it was her, maybe that was why she had been given it; even now we¡¯ve never settled on a reason why certain people get certain magic.


    Just then we heard an approaching stomping as Skull and Ara clambered down the stairs for some unaccountable reason carrying an amphora between them. Blood¡¯s hand flopped weakly from my neck but I stayed still for another moment enjoying the comforting presence of my best friend and not to put too fine a point on it trying to delay having to deal with Ara.


    ¡°Ara why are you carrying a huge amphora?¡±


    ¡°I wanted pie.¡± She shrugged as if that explained everything.


    I let my hand linger on Blood shoulder for a second before I stood and followed the two into the kitchen where I spent the next hour arguing with Ara about the insanity of using an Amphora as a pie tray and then the next hour after that enjoying some delicious pie. Ara really is an astonishingly good cook so she nearly burst into tears when she saw what we were cooking for ourselves since we really just ate old leftovers that we swiped from noble pantries. Technically it was very high quality food but after it¡¯s been carried across the city in a sack even Jurinian[121] isn¡¯t at its best.


    Before long we were sitting together sprawled on stolen furniture and chatting away over a hot meat pie with some fresh sweet bread for dessert. Blood was able to sit up and cram a whole pie under her mask with undiminished appetite (seriously she eats like five times as much as the rest of us do even when she''s not healing from near exsanguination). I remember it well... When I close my eyes even today I can see us sitting there laughing, chatting and boasting for hours with my old friends and my new one. For a few hours I wasn''t an heir or a noble. I wasn''t a kind of investment, I was just me and I couldn''t have been happier.


    And of course that was when things started to go horribly wrong.


    In a decrepit dark and disreputable dock district, next to a pile of smouldering ashes; stands a figure. A man tall and coldly handsome with a hard cast to his eyes and four silver blades affixed to his limbs.


    Nightsbane turns as another parishioner falls to their knees and thanks him.


    ¡°Don''t mention it ma¡¯am.¡± He said magnanimously waving away the grateful woman and her family; they scuttled away like rats fleeing from candle light clutching bundles of food, clothing, prayer books and matches. Everyday items to be sure but everyday items of which the church had a vast surplus thanks to donations and patronage, they would never need even a fraction of what they were given and so it was a joy and privilege to give it away to the less fortunate. It was the Inquisition''s job to see to the needs of all of Prasus¡¯ citizenry.


    Well... almost all.


    Nightsbane stops posing as something catches his eye and he weaves through the huge crowd that has formed around the ruined warehouse like a shark cutting through a shoal. The people who parted before him showered him with thanks and praise, even with his current urgent mission Nightsbane still takes time to enjoy it.


    Arriving at the long low tables his pyre-guards had set out he stops and grins at the initiate who is staffing it.


    ¡°Hello Swain, how is the distribution going?¡±


    ¡°Very well sir Nightsbane,¡± replied the masked boy handing over another parcel of the Inquisition blessing to yet another disgustingly grateful family before turning back to his teacher. ¡°We¡¯ve given away nearly 700 packages so far... oh some of the other initiates say they think some people are going through the line multiple times... is that allowed sir?¡±


    Nightsbane smiled at the child''s naivety. ¡°Of course it is Swain of course it is. These supplies we have here are the blessing of Koth, provided for us by the Arch-Doge himself, they are not ours to start with they belong instead to the most faithful citizens of this fair city. If each man and woman wishes to take away a hundred packages it is our duty as Inquisitors to accommodate them. We live, after all, to serve.¡±


    This impromptu speech raised a ragged but heartfelt cheer from the surrounding multitude which Nightsbane acknowledged with a magnanimous wave. As the crowd continued pillaging the tables around him Nightsbane leant forwards and whispered into Swain''s ear.


    ¡°I can see a gang of non-humans standing near that old alley on the left, go and tell the pyre-guards to disburse them. These provisions are for real people only.¡±


    Swain nodded quickly. ¡°Of course sir.... Beatrix! Can you cover the rest of my shift?¡± As the two youths switched places and Swain dashed off into the street, Nightsbane bowed once more to the crowd (raising another cheer he was pleased to see) and strode past them and into the mass of tents and tables that the Inquisition had brought with them.


    His initiates had set up their aid counters of food and supplies all along the edges of the once proud dock warehouse at Nightsbanes order, the Inquisitor was more than bright enough to know that the Inquisition operating in any district was going to cause comment so he had chosen to obfuscate his hunt with a bit of humanitarian aid. Only if a citizen was incautious enough to pry past the tables of food and friendly initiates would they find the ranks of pyre-guard half hidden in the storage tents, weapons drawn and with orders to kill on sight. Nightsbane strode between them now and stood on the edge of the flat plain of burnt wood that had once been an entire private dock, now just an ash heap surrounded by heat warped stone.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Suddenly an Earln trees bladder vented in the distance the harsh lowing caused Nightsbane to raise his arms into fighting stance for a moment, the Inquisitor was not running the risk of one of those things returning under his nose and they would have to get past his nose because he could smell them now.


    The rank festering stench on the air, the stench of magic (or possibly just the scent of those nauseating non-humans, luckily he never had to deal with such creatures in the ranks of the Church if one of their kind was ever elevated to serve the church in any capacity they were kept well away from such mentally taxing jobs as inquisition service and given duties more befitting of their abilities such as floor cleaning. Truly Koth is generous).


    ¡°Ah Inquisitor Nightsbane!¡± Called a voice.


    Nightsbane snapped back to reality and smiled at the approaching watch Captain who was the reason for his presence here.


    ¡°Ah Captain Pendleton,¡± he said smoothly. ¡°Thank you again for accommodating my men and I in your fine district.¡±


    The Captain saluted smartly. ¡°Oh it''s our honour lord, our honour. To be allowed to assist an Inquisitor in his duties is something I have dreamt of since I was a boy.¡±


    The Inquisitor smiled at such due reverence being paid and nodded at the ashen wasteland before them. ¡°This was the place then?¡±


    ¡°Yes lord,¡± replied the watchman promptly, ¡°my men followed reports here after the vigilantes dropped Red-Razor off at our watchhouse. They interviewed the citizens nearby and detained and interrogated a number of fleeing gang members...¡± The man lapsed into silence, his face conflicted. ¡°They painted a picture of.... of magic being used within... I could hardly believe it; those warrior women were far too kind to be mages but I knew my duty was to report to you and pray to Koth that they would be found innocent.¡±


    The Inquisitor nodded solemnly, he briefly toyed with the idea of killing the Captain or at least arranging for his career to be destroyed but decided against it the man¡¯s loyalty record in the Inquisitions Black Truth vaults was spotless.


    ¡°Correctly handled Captain if these are indeed blasphemous mages then you will be commended highly upon their capture and execution.¡±


    ¡°I find myself hoping they are not your lordship; they seemed so kind,¡± said the Captain softly. ¡°If they are Mages... why did I trust them?¡±


    Nightsbane smiled warmly and patted him on the shoulder. ¡°I am afraid Captain that you have just seen the face they choose to show the world. For such tainted beings as mages lying comes as naturally as breathing... but fear not; you are not unique in falling victim to their wiles. In fact this entire city once venerated their kind if you remember before the Arch-Doge showed us the true way.¡±


    As the Captain brightened up, Nightsbane strode away across the ash. His Arcanum which was slung around his neck was emitting deep regular ticks as it read the aether in the air recording nothing more than natural background. The Inquisitor felt himself growing more and more tense as it refused to chime. This was them, the rooftop duo and they had even named themselves! He knew this was them, it had to be.


    Suddenly his Arcanum exploded into life, its inner gears spinning frantically and the sedate ticking accelerating and becoming a staccato burst of rapid clicks like the last beats of a failing heart.


    ¡°Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick.¡±


    Nightsbane stooped low, in the ash dunes around him it was quite hard to make out details but his boots were nudging the edge of what looked like a partially melted bronze gong, lifting it he peered under, seconds later he lowered the metal and smiled widely.


    ¡°Four.... they¡¯ve recruited?¡±


    ¡°I''m sorry sir I didn''t quite catch that?¡±


    Nightsbane shook his head lightly and beamed at Captain Pendleton. ¡°Nothing you need to worry about Captain.¡± He said pleasantly, turning away from the ruined warehouse and walking across the ash strewn wasteland back to the watchman.


    ¡°Well I have seen all I can see here Captain, only one thing left... take me to your prison.¡±


    Nightsbane looked down at the huddled little man before him. He was as per departmental policy chained to the large metal chair in the interrogation cell but this was obviously wasted effort the man was not only terrified but tiny; some of the chain links which bound him were thicker than his arms. This overriding impression of weakness was not helped by the fact that at each of the cardinal directions from the man stood a six foot tall pyre-guardsman in heavy black ticksteel plate mail with a drawn longsword.


    In the dank ice cold air of the stone interrogation cell buried in the bedrock below the Trade Winds district''s sole remaining watchhouse; inquisitor Nightsbane paced back and forth behind the prisoner assessing him. The man somehow managed to cower whilst staying still (not that he had much of a choice there though; what with all the chains). He was old and would have been tall had he stood up, he was stick thin with white hair, stretched and scarred skin and a long white robe that was worn nearly ragged and had more patches than seams.


    Judging that the silence had stretched nicely Nightsbane stepped out of the shadows and into the prisoners line of sight. To Nightsbane gratification he emitted a low wheeze of shock and began to shake in his chains.


    Kind thought Nightsbane to himself Kind will break him... with a handful of unkind in the back pocket if necessary of course.


    ¡°Hello,¡± said the inquisitor, pleasantly injecting so much syrup into his tone that it nearly flowed from his mouth. ¡°I am Nightsbane and I would like you to think of me as a friend.¡±


    ¡°F... F...Friend...¡± Stuttered the man.


    ¡°Well you would hate to have me as an enemy.¡± Smiling the Inquisitor, as expected the man shook and lowed again like a cow in great distress. Nightsbane let him be for a moment then reached out and patted him gently on the shoulder as if in an effort to console him.


    ¡°Now then now then that really won¡¯t do will it? There¡¯s no need for that,¡± he nodded at the man who was staring transfixed into his eyes. ¡°How about you tell me your name?¡±


    ¡°Uh I¡¯m Gaius Bryn Reynolds but most people just call me the Physician.¡± Replied the Physician slowly.


    ¡°Oh... and why is that?¡± asked Nightsbane.


    ¡°I... I used to be a member of the house of bottles, when I got kicked out I had to flee to the dock spurs. Nobody would hire me and I ended up... sort of... well... falling into a gang and I used my healing skills to save their leader''s life and so they called me the Physician... it kinda stuck.¡± The man babbled so desperately to speak that he didn''t even think about what he had just said.


    Nightsbane smiled with genuinely faked warmth. He could already execute the man for admitting to being part of a dock gang but that could wait till later, he had bigger fish to ritually execute.


    ¡°That sounds like a hard time for you,¡± Nightsbane sympathised; he almost sounded sincere. ¡°It¡¯s a real pity especially since you got caught up in this unpleasantness as well.¡±


    ¡°Yes Yes!¡± said the man, his eyes darting side to side. ¡°It was horrible there where... there where...¡±


    ¡°Mages?¡± asked Nightsbane as if the question was of no importance.


    The man tried to nod but only succeeded in rattling his chains in the end he settled for a quiet. ¡°Yes lord.¡±


    ¡°They were part of this.... crawler gang?¡±


    ¡°No lord they... they... stopped them,¡± replied the man, ¡°I was looking for my prot¨¦g¨¦ but the Crawlers captured me then she and those mages arrived and distracted them,¡± the Physician shuddered. ¡°I can only imagine what they would have done to me if I hadn''t run when I did.¡±


    ¡°It would have doubtless been terrible,¡± sympathised Nightsbane for the first time in this interview with genuine emotion. ¡°What did they look like?¡±


    ¡°There was a short one all in red with a mask with horns, another was all in black with a black iron skull mask and then there was one in white with what looked like crystal for a mask; like a block of quartz or something.¡±


    Nightsbane looked down at the man with a calculating expression. ¡°So.... there were three?¡±


    The man looked up at Nightsbane but his eyes didn''t rise. ¡°... Yes, there were three.¡±


    ¡°And what of your prot¨¦g¨¦ in all this,¡± continued the Inquisitor, backing off smoothly. ¡°I assume she escaped unharmed?¡±


    ¡°I think so.¡±


    ¡°And what is she like?¡± Nightsbane whispered into the man''s ear. ¡°Is she skilled? She helped to save you. After all, I assume she is.... special.¡±


    The Physician flinched away and nodded jerkily. ¡°She''s a very strong girl; clever two but...¡± he stopped speaking and sullenly returned his gaze to the floor.


    ¡°So very good for her,¡± hissed the Inquisitor. ¡°Where is she? What is her name?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s of no interest to you.¡± Whispered the man.


    ¡°Then why do you hesitate to speak of her?¡±  all trace of false honey is gone from Nightsbanes voice now; instead it drips real poison. ¡°Why, if she didn''t consort with the abominations.... or show herself as one?¡±


    The chained elder didn''t move as Nightsbane continued, ¡°now it¡¯s not your fault.¡± He said suddenly back to his sweet and friendly voice. ¡°Mages lie as you or I would breathe, they swim in a sea of falsehood, they are evil; true evil and as such are not bound by the laws of honesty or morality if you were deceived no one would blame you... so answer me, why do you hesitate to speak of her?¡±


    The man looked up with a firm and resolute gaze. ¡°It''s... it''s because she''s a half breed sir... a half Ladorian.¡±


    Nightsbane actually recoiled at the notion, a half human, a being of sullied blood and sullied with the Ladorian FILTH of all things. That was almost worse than being a mage.


    ¡°I... I understand,¡± he said sweetly, " The fourth must have stayed out of his sight. Nightsbane thought quite shaken by the notion of a half-Ladorian anywhere near him, such filthy creatures... the notion that one might have even touched the same pavement he did.


    The Inquisitor gagged softly then turned back to the Physician swiftly.


    ¡°Thank you for this apothecary your testimony has been entered into the record of the Order of Enforced Purity and Proper Though and as such I...¡±


    ¡°Please lord,¡± whispered the man, ¡°I ask for mercy.¡±


    Nightsbane patted him on the shoulder again, ¡°oh you need not fear Koth is the most kind and merciful of gods,¡± he said with utter sincerity and as the man looked up and met his eye for the first time Nightsbane let himself smile widely. ¡°Just ask him yourself when you see him.¡±


    The Physician didn¡¯t even manage to gasp before the jolnek fighting blade skewered his heart.


    Nightsbane pulled the sword free and wiped it on the dead man''s robes then he turned to one of the pyre-guards. ¡°Have the testimonies entered into record and the warehouse sealed off for the standard five cycle magical decontamination sweep. Ensure Captain Pendleton is credited in the newspapers with leading a daring raid to destroy this warehouse.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Inquisitor Nightsbane.¡± Replied the man promptly.


    The Inquisitor turned to go then remembered something, ¡°oh and see that someone cleans up that rubbish would you?¡± He asked, gesturing at the Physicians corpse. ¡°We wouldn''t want to stink up this lovely watch house would we?¡±

 The Month of Frost - Prologue.

    As you know I have always hated masques; but being a member of the Blade Brigade had mellowed me out somewhat. Ask any heiress and if you get past the politeness there is always a frustrated undercurrent of ¡°I want to hit these people with a hammer¡± it turns out actually doing so is a really good form of stress relief. So rather than fantasising about running away to the tropics I glided happily through the mass of people, smiling, laughing and charming just like I was supposed to be with barely a hint of the revulsion I felt towards all of them.


    Look at you I remember thinking as I curtsied with a wide fake smile in front of a fat dowager. Never cared, never fought. Bowing and scraping for that power mad tyrant and letting his murderers run rampant through the city chasing after people whose only crime was being born... I detest you. Of course I am a noble so none of my thoughts showed on my face and I think I may have even made a complimentary comment about her dress.


    ¡°You look like you¡¯re having fun.¡± Said Allegra at my shoulder her grin was a horrific fixed rictus with a little tinge of real mischief around its edges.


    ¡°Oh definitely you know what I think about parties.¡± I replied copying her smile back at her, perfectly of course, we do share the same face after all.


    She winked at me with the speed of a snake then tilted her head towards a distant corner of the ballroom. ¡°Don''t look but our brother has found a priest of the machine god to bother.¡±


    ¡°Should we step in?¡± I asked with a sigh.


    ¡°No point he''s got the scent of clockwork now; if we drag him away he¡¯ll just run back when we aren¡¯t looking.¡±


    I nodded at her logic and strolled away from our babbling brother. As I walked I let my gaze wander across the party looking for anything interesting as my sister traipsed at my heels. I''m sure she¡¯d have much preferred to be out gossiping with the other lesser heirs of course but father had asked us to stick together.


    As I drifted across the awfully tacky dance floor (seriously it had Orthalian lanterns, huge green paper constructions which went out of style months ago) I found my feet carrying me over the admittedly beautiful gold tiled floor towards the distant buffet table. I grabbed a few pieces of saut¨¦ed fish and went to eat them, for a second I found my right hand instinctively pawing at the air in front of my face before I snapped it back down onto the table again. No mask I thought and bit down hard on the skewered fish.


    ¡°...And they took the gem. Can you believe it? I had that jewel shipped here from Ulmar, which took months, and finally got to place it in its new display case yesterday and today it¡¯s gone!¡±


    I turned to see the noted dowager Lady Lutressa talking animatedly to a group of women sat around the fire. Several younger girls my age stood around her with their chaperones and uttered sycophantic noises of sympathy as the dowager waved her arms.


    ¡°I know who it was too!¡± She said her voice trembling with emotion, ¡°one of my guards told me... before I fired him of course one can¡¯t let a failure like that run around one''s mansion,¡± she paused for a deep dramatic breath. ¡°It was that blasted Blade Brigade! Those low life thieves and burglars have no sense of style or understanding of their place in this city! I mean what kind of a name is the Blade Brigade anyway?¡±


    ¡°It felt right at the time.¡± I muttered into my drink. I just couldn''t resist, I really couldn''t! Anyway I strode over to the group and leant on the tall back of one of their red silk chairs.


    ¡°Oh that sounds terrible Lady Lutressa,¡± I said, injecting such sickly sweetness into my tone that I felt like I was going to vomit. ¡°How awful for you! Were the guards able to get it back?¡±


    She snorted. ¡°Hardly! As I am sure you know Lady Dutair the city guard are about as competent as a troupe of monkeys, less even! They gave me a lot of stuff about the lack of witnesses to their arrival... something to do with tracking I wasn¡¯t paying attention to the odious little man... I had only JUST bought it and now I would bet it¡¯s sitting in some crime lord''s vault whilst the watch scratches their heads.¡±


    Well she would have lost that bet Blood was using it to prop up the leg of our kitchen table.


    ¡°Oh my dear I understand exactly what you¡¯re going through,¡± said another fat old woman lounging in a chair; her daughter stood stiffly to attention at her side. ¡°Only two cycles ago they dared to assault my family house! They broke in and subdued our guards, who were obviously not worth their pay, then stole a priceless family antique, my great grandfather''s mahogany chess board.¡±


    Blood instigated that entire heist specifically for the damn chessboard just so she and Skull could keep playing together. So far their little duels had gone through seventeen chess boards, one black and white checked table and the crudely painted kitchen floor.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    If you ever get the chance to play Blood I highly recommend that you do so, the level of creative cheating she displays is simply astonishing which I think is why Skull keeps challenging her[122]. Repainting the enemy pieces her colour, hiding small spring powered traps under the tiles of the board, sleight of hand to plant tiny bombs under the enemy rooks and once she used a thrown dagger to pin an annoyingly mobile queen in place.


    ¡°They attacked my uncle last cycle!¡± wailed one of the young women standing next to me. ¡°Those crazed thieves ransacked our library and then destroyed an incredibly valuable clockwork golem that we had guarding our vault!¡±


    I winced slightly and rubbed my wrist as she spoke, I really shouldn''t have punched that thing. Ara was the one who got it in the end winding a rope around its heart-gear and pulling it from its chest, even when she didn''t use magic she was a dab hand with a lasso.


    ¡°Mine to...¡±


    ¡°...An old family relic...¡±


    ¡°...The watch didn''t have a clue of course.¡±


    The ladies nattered and chattered for a moment until suddenly a clear voice cut through the tumult. ¡°Well we won¡¯t have to worry much longer.¡± I turned to see the daughter of duchess Margovia and I remember having to bite back a sarcastic comment about the calibre of her mother¡¯s furnace-knights.


    ¡°What do you mean by that....¡± I paused for a moment as I desperately tried to remember the spoiled little brat¡¯s name. ¡°...Yuna?¡± The girl smiled at me with sickly sweetness and leant forwards in her chair so as to make a show of giving me her full attention. At this point thanks to the loss of the aether disruptor prototype the Margovia noble house was essentially bankrupt and only my family¡¯s merciful nature[123] when it came to calling in bills was keeping them afloat. I think she¡¯d have bowed to me if she hadn''t been sitting down.


    ¡°Oh Mistress Dutair, it is so awful... and wonderful. It turns out that this so-called Blade Brigade is made up... of mages!¡±


    A dagger of ice shot out of the sky slipped down my spine and cut away every drop of pride and ounce of smugness, in its place all that was left was fear.


    ¡°A coven of mages!¡± squealed an old dame sat in a high backed chair. ¡°How dreadful!¡±


    ¡°They were in my house!¡± Screamed another shrilly. Several ladies I noted had simply fainted dead away and in the background I saw a number of eavesdropping servants making the symbol of Koth superstitiously at the mere mention of magic. Everyone loathes mages.


    ¡°How terrible!¡± Squealed a mousy little daughter of house Lanin who then began to hyperventilate and babble in horror until Yuna reached over and patted her firmly on the back a few times.


    ¡°But don''t worry darlings!¡± said Yuna Margovia magnanimously addressing the whole crowd. ¡°The wonderful Arch-Doge is already aware of this...¡±


    No


    ¡°...and he has answered our plight...¡±


    Koth no


    ¡°...By sending one of the most blessed Inquisitions to hunt them down!¡±


    And that was it; at that word I felt my arms begin to shake, my heart started to hammer off beat in my chest and my mouth filled with the metallic taste of fear.


    I shot to my feet, mirrored a half second later by my sister, annoying little gossip that she is, she still knew news like this had to be given to our father quickly... and if I''m honest I think she knew that I was panicking as well even as I pressed it down behind an air of noble grace.


    ¡°Well that is interesting,¡± I said my voice level and only slightly hoarse. ¡°I am afraid however I must go now... to speak to my father...¡± And with that I spun and ran... or came as close to running as a noblewoman in heels and a ball gown can manage, even I admit it was more of a fast strut.


    I could feel the blood pounding in my ears alongside a single word Inquisitor, Inquisitor, Inquisitor. That was all I was thinking as I elbowed my way across the dance floor. I needed to get out; I didn''t know where my father was and I didn''t care, I just needed to get out.


    The flashing motion of shimmering dresses and gowns was becoming too much, the lights and colours and motion. I felt sick rising in my throat and suddenly... I smacked into someone. A young noblewoman; head and shoulders shorter than me in a long green dress. We staggered away from one another and I straightened just in time to meet her eyes, pure black with golden triangular pupils set into blood red skin under black horns.


    I gasped at the girl for a second, the surge of embarrassment at performing such a breach of etiquette overcoming even the growing terror that was making my heart race like an escaped horse. I was the heir of my house after all I shouldn''t have nearly decked a fellow noblewomen even from the fallen house Lyteth. I should have apologised to her, gotten her a drink and charmed her for a bit as an apology... sometimes, just sometimes, I wonder what would have happened if I had.


    But I couldn''t. I knew I couldn''t manage to mutter a single syllable without my voice breaking and if that happened I¡¯d lose all credibility in the eyes of the reef-sharks that surrounded me... but a breach of etiquette would be just as disastrous. Luckily I had my family here to help me.


    I bowed apologetically to the girl and gestured at Allegra before sweeping off, it was a bold play but I was still reasonably confident about it, Allegra being my twin meant she was nearly as important as me so an apology from her should be accepted and I¡¯ve always known she''s more personable than I am[124].


    As I vanished towards the distant doors Allegra curtsied deeply.


    ¡°Ah, Mistress Lyteth, what a lovely dress! I am so terribly sorry for my dear sister¡¯s blunder, however she simply must see our father this very instant on highly important and private business, I¡¯m sure you understand and I beg you forgive her.¡± Allegra said, flashing her most winning smile.


    ¡°Oh don''t mention it.¡± Said the girl in a voice as sweet as sin and as soft as silk.

 Month of Frost - Prologue 2 & 3

    To preface this next part and explain why her viewpoint has not yet been featured, Ara is in her own words ¡°unashamedly illiterate¡±. She claims to have never understood the concept nor point of reading and writing and so she has never learned how to do either. As such I have agreed to transcribe her story of this disturbing revelation, fresh from the whale¡¯s mouth as it were.


    Oh come on you didn''t expect me not to get at least one in did you?


    ¡°So there I was walking along the waterfront. I know I can''t go anywhere near my old home district anymore but come on the seas in my blood! So I¡¯ve started going down to a nice little market I found in the southern dock spur, which is as far as possible from my old contacts. It''s a pretty good place. I actually always got some new piece of posh from a distant land like food or fabric or stranger things. I once saw a huge cage with a big yellow striped thing in it that looked a bit like a gryshk but with only four legs. It was on that little stone pillar lookin¡¯ plinth just off to the left of that big public square near the mooring points for the western kingdoms... you know the one right Skull? It¡¯s the really big one with the nice shiny green tiles and that big fountain... Yes I know you''re writing this down that''s why I¡¯m giving you proper.... fine fine fine I¡¯ll hurry up.¡±


    ¡°So... since I have to make it concise, whatever that means I found a poster and went home at the end. Oh the look on your face... Of course I am enjoying this, what a silly question to ask!¡±


    At this point your faithful scribe attempted to strangle her source, after several minutes of skirmishing Ara agreed to take it more seriously.


    ¡°So I was out getting us some vegetables, marrows and tomatoes mainly, all for a big soup I wanted to make that night. Mainly because I was thinking that Blood needed feeding up a bit, I mean she''s got arms like a twig and I don''t care that she''s got super strength she still needs someone to look after her and Bright could do with a few more hearty meals as well she¡¯s far too thin.


    I know the current fashion and all but I think she¡¯d be cuter with a little more meat on her bones... anyway I had haggled the stallholder down quite a bit which I was proud of and she wasn''t making a stink about my species which is rare for the southern dock spur[125] so I stopped for a chat. We talked about the weather and trade route troubles for a few minutes then she said that I best be careful around the watchhouses on my way back so I, being a conscientious and very much alive smuggler, asked her why I needed to watch the watch all of a sudden *Laughter*. Why are you rolling your eyes at me? That was funny!


    Oh come on don''t just write laughter that''s so boring... fine I give up... anyway she said that she had been detained for six hours the other day because she didn''t have the right permit for a bag of imported breads. She managed to bribe herself free in the end but she said that the guards were taking anyone off the streets they could and she could hear their Captain yelling in the hall. Said it seemed like they were being run ragged so I thanked her and told her I¡¯d watch out... then I legged it with my bag of food under one arm. I know a bit more than you posh nobs about stuff like this and when the guard act like that it¡¯s because someone somewhere has pissed off the Arch-Doge and he''s out for blood and so every watchman in the city tries to act like the most astute and attentive guard whose ever lived just in case they get a visit from an Inquisition black truth team... and three guesses as to who got on the tyrants knackers this time eh?


    I may not have bothered learning how to read or write but that doesn''t mean I''m not smart. I knew it had to be us but I didn''t know how bad it was until I rounded the corner of the main street, you know the big one with those weird foreign lampposts all bending and melty looking, that leads back to the main gates. About twenty guards were standing around the door... don''t matter much to me since I just swim anywhere I need to go but the problem was that one of them was pasting a huge poster onto one of the gates. It was real cheap paper and the pictures on it were more... what¡¯s that fancy expression you use for fake art Skull? Oh right! More ¡°artistic license¡± than real pictures but it showed a decent copy of all your masks including my bandana and underneath it said Four Rogue Mages ¨C Wanted Dead ¨C Reward: 3,000,000 gold Lire.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Yeah three million; as in enough to buy a mansion in a gold rated district and a fleet of trading ships... So I swore for a bit and leapt into the river and swam back to our base and you know the worst part? Our supper got wet.¡±


    At this point your humble scribe once again lost her temper and threw her notebook at Ara, after a few more minutes of wrestling for it she was able to retrieve it and write up this... somewhat rambling; but generally useful account of Ara¡¯s big day out.


    And now without further ado my account.


    It all started in my office, I was standing next to my desk, shoulders hunched and eyes tired squinting around at the deluge of paper that had filled my study over the past few weeks. Shaking my head sleepily I stifled a yawn. I was busy. Very busy. But that was to be expected, it was the end of the season after all. In just a few short weeks the nobles would migrate wholesale to their winter palaces on the southern islands. Now was the time when lovers were jilted, bank managers came calling and the last few great parties were held. Nobles love a good party and these end of the season affairs could forge a dozen alliances and ruin a hundred reputations before the canap¨¦s had even been finished off.


    So there I was, standing next to my desk, sorting through the ashes of broken lives presented in a million different formats; and I really mean that, if being an intelligencer has taught me anything, it''s the sheer variety of writing material available in Prasus. There were tiny scraps of cheap off-white paper covered in nearly illegible scrawling, huge velum scrolls crisscrossed by neat rows of copperplate, towers of badly stacked papyrus dense with foreign pictograms, leather satchels filled with watch dispatches, there was even a long roll of pray paper that I honestly think was stolen from an Inquisition cloister-barracks[126].


    I had literally mountains of work so when one of my subordinates slowly creaked open my door and shuffled inside I paid him no heed and continued sorting my piles. He was a servant after all and he would simply wait until I had time for him... or so I thought. As I began to filter through some of the more valuable and damning pieces of private mail delivered to the house Lyteth in the last month the man coughed politely.


    I turned around; slowly and gave him my most withering icy glare. He actually backed away slightly and averted his eyes.


    ¡°Uh...,¡± he sounded utterly terrified, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry mistress but...,¡± in one hand he held a large black envelope embossed with my family''s seal which he gestured frantically. ¡°Your father said... I was to... I mean...¡±


    I looked away from the stammering man pointedly but waved a hand at one of the small tables next to the door. This was, I freely admit, just a way to assert my authority. I couldn''t have him thinking that he was important enough for me to give him my full attention even if he had a message from my father.


    Of course the second that the door closed I was over at the table pulling the envelope open. Less than ten heartbeats after that I swore loudly and at length using words that a woman of my rank is technically not allowed to know, then I punched the wall; hard and dropped the letter into the roaring fireplace. Quickly kicking a hidden switch on my desk a portion of my wall swung inwards, reaching inside the hiding space I pulled out my Blade Brigade costume.


    Striding across the room I dragged the shroud off a larger mirror that I had ordered set into the wall. Explaining how I teleport to a non-mage is impossible like explaining boxing to a fish. All I can manage is that my skin became like crisp autumn air, my bones felt very purple and I tasted tomorrow''s rain and sorrow.


    A second later I was standing in our hideout waiting impatiently for the others and wondering just how in the Abyss were we going to get out of this one.

 The Month of Frost - part 1

    - Elsewhere -


    I reached down and tugged at my grey habit distractedly whilst trying not to move my head. I could see the Proctor prowling down the row of initiates towards me and even as I watched he slammed his heavy stick down across a novice''s shoulder then wordlessly pointed at the wheezing youth¡¯s poorly cleaned coif. It seemed like he was really on the warpath today.


    I stood a little taller and threw back my shoulders. I knew my vestments were perfect, not creased or stained in the slightest thus showing the untainted purity of the one wearing them in accordance with church doctrine. Obviously that really didn¡¯t work out in my case but luckily corruption isn¡¯t visible.


    As I thought that little thought the Proctor passed me by, the rustle of his robes unnaturally loud in the still room and his grey eyes piercing and scornful. I held my breath for a few seconds then he vanished out of vision. As there was no sudden explosion of pain I assumed that I had passed muster and began to breathe easily again.


    I caught a slight movement out of the corner of my eye and smiled as I saw Valentine and Swain had both half turned to wave at me; obviously pleased with the inspection. I gave them a tiny wave back before resuming my statue impression.


    After what felt like several hours but was less than a minute I heard the sharp clacking of the Proctors shoes again as he strode back up the lines of sweating novices stopping only when he had once again reached the front of the chapel, there he bowed to the Sub-deacon who had been napping on the dais.


    ¡°All novices are day readied Sub-deacon Russell SIR!¡±


    The Sub-deacon started slightly then he blinked his glazed over eyes as a shimmer of life infused them. ¡°Thank you Proctor Clemons.¡± He said dryly sitting up in the bleak grey throne. The Proctor nodded and ascended the wooden steps to stand beside him.


    ¡°NOVICES!¡± he bellowed. ¡°Sub-deacon Russell will now read you your morning sermon!¡± The unspoken rider of pay attention or else echoed around the room nearly as loudly as his previous yell.


    The Sub-deacon winced visibly at Proctor''s voice then waved a hand limply, ¡°yes yes quite right...¡± he cleared his throat loudly and continued. ¡°As is written in the Book of Koth; Verse of the Cog...¡±


    I sighed, very very quietly. Russell was a terrible orator being nothing more than a bean counter for the church in truth, if it wasn¡¯t for the requirement that novices receive daily sermons from a ranking priest he would never set foot in these draughty stone halls. As a result he always fell back on the old traditional verses, never anything interesting. I rolled my shoulder slightly and let my mind drift as the old man began to read.


    ¡°In the beginning there was Koth and he was alone. He looked out over the endless blackness and he wept for loneliness and his tears became the universal mechanism; endless clockwork and steel that wound all throughout the blackness. With pride he looked down upon this creation and with joy he set its gears spinning and in the centre of that vast engine appeared a world, our world, spinning and dancing endlessly in the centre of this god crafted machine.¡±


    Yeah yeah yeah I¡¯d heard the story of the god engine a thousand times it was one of the first sermons we were taught. It may have been flashy and impressive in its description but it was thoroughly played out. I guess he was hoping that it was one of the few he could read in his flat, deadpan voice that might actually inspire us to some degree.


    On the dais the Sub-deacon wet his lips with a lizard-like dart of his tongue and then turned the steel pages of the Book of Koth on the lecture before him. The clanking intruded on my consciousness for a second before it faded away and he began to read again; his voice if anything more emotionless than before.


    ¡°But in this great machine there was a single error. As Koth had cried the purity of his tears became the universal engine but his sadness became a taint in it, the regret and fear of a god. It slipped into the great gears and jammed them, it twisted the purpose of plants and animals, it allowed tiny men to ignore the laws that Koth willed into the mechanism. It warped the souls of those who otherwise would have one day become part of the great mechanism and endeavoured to undo all that there is and was and will be. And this taint was named by man as Magic.¡±


    This was even more boring than I had remembered, his dead tone, his sleepy eyes and the tired old fable, I could feel a yawn coming on and I could barely be bothered to stop it.


    I saw two rows ahead of me that Padmore had grabbed Swain''s attention and the two were exchanging furtive glances and gestures. I expected that the Proctor was going to find a dead frog on his chair that night (it actually turned out to be a mouse) and that a few more switches would be getting broken tomorrow.


    Some people just weren¡¯t suited to be Inquisitorial initiates... obviously I was at the top of that list, by the Abyss if they knew half of what I had done the other novices would have burned me at the stake without even asking the Sub-deacons permission but like I said corruption is luckily invisible so whilst my mind played with the Fay my body stood perfectly to attention and effortlessly gave off the air of obedient purity that I had cultivated for so many eons.


    It didn''t take much to attract the Proctors eye however so I wasn¡¯t surprised to see him slowly march down from the dais and, swinging his stick with a disturbingly amused look in his eyes, advance past me towards some unlucky soul further back in the silent grey ranks.


    I ignored the bitten back screams of pain behind me just as easily as the boring sermon, simply staring into the middle distance as the Sub-deacon droned on and on without respite. He was nearly on the bit where Koth personally created the Arch-Doge and told him the secrets of the Ten Tiers of the Art and how to teach them to the faithful to use against the heretics of the world.


    Obviously as a heretic I probably shouldn¡¯t be allowed to learn it let alone have mastered two of the tiers but... well you¡¯ve heard it twice by now I won¡¯t bore you again.


    Anyway I was jerked out of my internal reverie by a sharp tug on my sleeve and looked around to see Valentine grinning at me. She winked with the speed of a snake and gestured at the distant door.


    ¡°Quickly,¡± she murmured without any visible motion of her lips. ¡°Before he starts again.¡±


    I smiled a very small smile at her and we scurried out of the hall quickly. The proctors and deacons like to see novices walking with purpose not just lazing around so our friends outside were standing with a slightly nervous air. I nodded at Swain and Padmore as they kicked off from their spot lounging against the wall and fell into step with me and Valentine.


    ¡°Hey CC,¡± said Padmore to me as we left the main corridor and headed deeper into the church proper. ¡°Hey can you give me a hand? Do we have combat training after this?¡±


    CC was my nickname, all Inquisitorial initiates were given to the church when we were young children (generally because our parents couldn''t or didn''t want to support us[127]) supposedly so we wouldn''t miss or remember the families we would never see again was the rationale for it and so we could be shaped totally to the cause of serving Koth. Part of this process was replacing our old names with new ones called Saint Names (you can probably guess where they come from) which we were under orders to use exclusively.


    But kids will be kids so amongst the novices we tended to refer to each other by whatever fragments of our old names we could remember. Valentine was pretty sure her name began with an A, Padmore though he was a John, Swain couldn''t remember anything and so was simply Swain at all times and all I could remember was that my first and last name had both started with a C; so CC.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Anyway I quickly replied that we did have combat training directly after and then we had classical Prasian, a prayer gathering and then more combat training before dinner.


    ¡°Damn; long day,¡± he replied with a pout on his lips as he regarded the wide empty corridor. ¡°At least we¡¯ve got some prayer time that¡¯ll be nice.¡±


    Well I tended to just close my eyes and sing popular drinking songs inside my head but to each their own. ¡°Oh definitely.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not coming with us?¡± Valentine asked me as we reached a corridor and I started heading down the other passage. For a second I ran through a thousand excuses in my mind before settling on one that was entirely believable.


    ¡°Not today, I¡¯ve got punishment duty, got to polish the altar in the sub-cloister of the holy boiler... with a toothbrush.¡± I left just long enough a gap in the last sentence for it to seem funny. The others laughed and a few passing novices grinned and rolled their eyes or stared disapprovingly at me. Obviously if they had the slightest idea what I was actually going to do they¡¯d be more than disapproving, fanatically murderous fury would be likely, but they didn''t and my peers now thought nothing of me splitting from the pack.


    I waved over my shoulder at the disappearing mass of grey robes and strode down the deserted corridor at a sedate pace; obviously I was on a time table but nothing attracted attention like a running novice in the middle of a church cloister so I simply walked with purpose whilst trying to give the impression that I was on an important errand that wouldn''t wait for questioning.


    Striding down one of the drafty stone corridors of the cloister-barracks I passed by a pair of servants cleaning a sub-cloister fastidiously. I noted without surprise that they were a pair of Kith, the church would never ask a human to demean themselves by sweeping the floor after all. Neither of them looked up at me as they scuttled along the floor, probably expecting to be kicked any second. I scurried away as fast as I could both to ease their worry and because I was nearly at the Sub-Cloister of the most holy muffler (and yes of course I lied to my friends about where I was going) it was a portentous place for a secret meeting. Obviously the Inquisitor had a sense of humour.


    Yes a full rank Inquisitor was coming back here, when you¡¯re known as a reliable steady novice who stays out of trouble you¡¯re treated like an ambulatory piece of furniture. The higher-ups don''t tend to bother watching what they say around you... or what important documents they leave on their desk when it¡¯s your day on cleaning duty.


    Now it wasn''t so unusual for an Inquisitor to be visiting a cloister-barracks. Some came back to reminisce, some were asked to teach classes, a few even led initiates out on training missions so it wasn¡¯t that uncommon... but for one to come back in disguise and to ask to speak with the deacon in private? That was unusual and I wanted to know why, mostly because the meeting might be about me in which case a quick exit and a quicker firebombing might be called for.


    I entered the tiny cloister and wandered up to the altar craning my neck to look up at the huge symbol of Koth on its stand. It was a shimmering golden cog wheel, its inner teeth cast from platinum, which stood atop a marble altar set with hundreds of smooth cut gems on every face like tiny constellations of colour. It was so disgustingly decadent that I felt the urge to spit.


    Just as I was contemplating if I could get away with it, my initiate''s Arcanum[128] struck four on my chest. I jumped then cursed myself as I realised how late it was getting, I didn''t have the time for casual desecration. Shaking my head I dashed across the hall towards the largest most padded bench (the deacon was old so I guessed that''s where she would sit) and slipped into the confessional booth set into the wall behind it. Closing the door I pressed my hand to the complex engravings in the wooden back wall, the entire panel swung inwards silently revealing a tiny cubbyhole beyond which I stepped into. Sitting down comfortably on the stool there for that purpose I watched the false wall swing closed again with a faint whine of gears. Now safely ensconced in the blackmailers annex[129] beyond I opened the air vent in the wall and leant back, closed my eyes and waited.


    I didn''t have to wait long.


    Less than five minutes later I heard the sound of the main door opening again followed by the swish swish of long robes dragging across a cold stone floor. After a moment the pew in front of the confessional creaked slightly as a body sagged into it. Together this new presence and I waited in silence, fidgeting with their habit and me trying not to breathe. After a handful of minutes the door opened once more and I could hear more footsteps approaching; these were far lighter, barely audible in fact and were not offset by a swishing robe.


    ¡°Deacon Belmont, how kind of you to see me.¡± Said Inquisitor Nightsbane.


    I would recognise that voice anywhere, quiet and smooth yet powerful and refined with the slightly lilting accent of a Prasus noble (some claimed Nightsbane used to be a noble, others that he was just pretentious enough to want to imitate their accent, I was firmly in the second camp).


    After a moment a second voice spoke, thin and reedy but still possessing a deep strength that (I knew to my chagrin) came out when a novice forgot their assignment due dates or ran in the corridors.


    ¡°This is a favour to you Nightsbane nothing more, I had hoped the first time you came back here would be to teach a class not on a wild gryshk chase.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing of the sort, deacon! I have tracked...¡±


    ¡°You claim to have tracked down four mages who are running wild across the city attacking nobles and stealing treasure left right and centre but you have no aetheric lock, no magical residue, no physical evidence, no reliable witnesses....¡±


    ¡°I have the testimony of that dock gang apothecary...!¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°Ok I see your point deacon.¡±


    ¡°And on this evidence... or lack thereof; you submitted a request for an execution warrant, as is your right as an Inquisitor, this request came before me and as is my right as a deacon I refused it.¡±


    ¡°Deacon please you must...¡±


    ¡°The public does not want to see the pyre-guard kicking down doors and Inquisitors leading packs of baying gryshk without a good reason. They want to see insightful and unbeatable inquisitors destroying abominations they do not want to see us fail, it upsets them. And you barely have any evidence these thieves really exist let alone that they are mages....¡±


    ¡°But ma¡¯am....!¡±


    ¡°Remember a few eons back when Inquisitor Dawnblood went after a gang of newly arrived foreign mages who were supposedly stealing from the treasury by magic?¡±


    ¡°This is nothing like that!¡±


    ¡°They were a bunch of street performers from Xiang who had bribed one of the mint¡¯s guards with a novelty silk fan!¡±


    After a moment the Deacon''s rising voice softened. ¡°Nightsbane you are one of our best and I cannot fault your fervour but I can''t let you go charging out into the darkness after nothing but a rumour of a rumour, it would destroy both of our reputations. As it is, I''m taking a risk just meeting you.¡±


    ¡°Yes I know Deacon and I am thankful... I know that Inquisitors are not traditionally allowed to appeal the denial of an Execution Warrant but this is important! These new mages are a serious threat, I sensed the aetheric fallout of their battles myself; the docks alone are nearly humming with magic!¡±


    There was a sigh. ¡°I trust your instincts, Nightsbane and your drive so, for a moment, I will concede that maybe they are mages but where do they live huh? Answer me that! Where are they based, where do they hide, how do they move around the city and, in short, how do you expect to track them down?¡±


    ¡°I already have! Beggars Row; it¡¯s a deserted former commercial district in northern Prasus nominally owned by the noble house Dumont. I¡¯ve been able to place them there on several different occasions and I¡¯ve even gotten a partially diffuse magical trace there. All I need is a kill order and the resources to cordon off the district and I can crush these abominations once and for all!¡±


    There was a faint sigh. ¡°Very well Nightsbane I can see in your eyes that if I deny you you¡¯ll go anyway so I may as well help you, the Execution Warrant for this Blade Brigade will be on your desk by noon tomorrow... on one condition.¡±


    ¡°Name it deacon.¡±


    ¡°You will take a deployment of novices with you as a training exercise, this way if you succeed they gain valuable experience and if you fail...¡±


    ¡°...We can claim it was a test?¡±


    ¡°Quite.¡±


    ¡°Of course deacon I will be happy to.¡±


    ¡°Good then I will see to the necessary paperwork.¡±


    ¡°You won¡¯t regret this deacon.¡±


    ¡°I know I won¡¯t Nightsbane, I just hope you don''t.¡±


    I heard the bench creak as one of the two church officials stood and a second later it creaked again as the other joined them. The pair walked away across the ringing floor and after a moment I heard the distant doors open and close.


    I am not stupid however so I waited for a full ten minutes before I opened the panel and left myself.


    Scurrying through the corridors I cursed internally, I couldn¡¯t let this happen. Our world needed more symbols of hope, more reminders that the tyrant Arch-Doge could be beaten and that the Inquisitors and their dread Tribunal were not all powerful.


    There was nothing for it, no matter the risk. I had to save The Blade Brigade.

 Month of Frost - Part 2

    And back to me!


    So there I was, stood in our hideout, panting and terrified. I hadn''t even had time to remove my ball gown instead I¡¯d just thrown on a cloak over it and grabbed one of the backup masks I hid around the house.


    Realising how conspicuously noble I still looked I dashed up to my room and got changed as quickly as I could, whilst I was struggling with a particularly incalcitrant corset I heard muffled bumps thumps and curses as the rest of the Brigade arrived in our hideout[130].


    A few minutes later I scurried down the stairs and saw my friends standing around our main room in varying states of disarray. Ara was soaking wet (not really all that unusual for her) and holding a bag of equally drenched vegetables which seemed to bother her greatly[131].


    Skull was arguing with her and looked as ruffled as I have ever seen her before or since; I mean one of her gloves didn''t match, her mask was slightly skewed and she seemed out of breath which until then I didn''t think she could be. Only Blood gave the appearance of calm huddled on the arm of a (guess what colour?) padded chair we¡¯d stolen from some long forgotten count or other but... I didn''t buy it.


    She tries to look perfect at all times but I could see her hands from where I stood on the top stair and they were gripping the handles of her rapiers so hard that her red leather gloves were turning white around the knuckles. I honestly don''t think she knows but she always does that when she''s really nervous.


    As I hurried down the staircase the three of them ceased their individual styles of panic and converged on me like reef-sharks gathering around a sinking corpse. Before I could open my mouth they all began yelling at cross purposes. I was only able to pick out a handful of words from the resultant cacophony.


    ¡°...Up on walls all over the docks...¡±


    ¡°...Have put out a death warrant...¡±


    ¡°...Three million gold Lire...¡±


    ¡°...Sending out the Inquisition!¡±


    ¡°...Hunting us, what should we...¡±


    ¡°...Run? Should we...¡±


    ¡°What should we do?¡±


    All three nearly harmonised on that last utterance before they were forced to stop for breath. Whilst they were busy gasping I focused my will and tried to still my heartbeat which hadn''t slowed down since I left the party (pleading a sore stomach to father) after a moment of looking at my friends and our treasures I finally got a grip on myself again.


    Taking a measured breath I walked into their midst, trying to project the air of measured grace that nobles learn to cultivate around age five, whilst my mind raced like a runaway horse and I desperately tried to come up with a plan.


    ¡°Ok!¡± I said injecting every drop of nobility I could into my tone and trying to sound as confident and unflappable as my father did. ¡°We need a plan... does anyone have one?¡±


    We looked at each other for a minute and then Ara shrugged, ¡°this isn''t the first time the law has been after me, I thought I¡¯d just skip town for a while...¡± She smiled at us with an unexpected air of bashfulness. ¡°...You guys are of course welcome to come with me; if you like.¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°I thought I¡¯d just abandon my mask,¡± said Skull after a moment''s thought. ¡°I mean if I take it off I''m just a normal girl again so I was just going to ditch it and stay home; maybe make a new one in the fullness of time.¡±


    ¡°Isn''t your mask an heirloom thought?¡± I asked. ¡°Doesn''t that mean people could still find you?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°Ah no not really this particular mask is an heirloom but... well do you know where it¡¯s from?¡±


    We all muttered in the negative so she continued. ¡°It¡¯s from the Masque of a Thousand Nights the last ball that the Doge ever held; the actual Doge I mean, not the Arch-Doge. He had one thousand of these black masks made and distributed amongst the nobility I....¡± She looked at us for a second then shrugged. ¡°I am a noble; I''m sure you knew because I''m pretty much certain you two are as well.¡±


    I remember thinking for a second ¡°so this is what a heart attack is like¡± as my blood froze in my veins... then I realised how silly I was being and mentally slapped myself. This was my dear friend Skull not some stranger so I nodded in agreement. ¡°Yeah... well yeah I am.¡± I looked across at Blood who nodded but kept silent.


    ¡°So they might suspect I''m a noble but they can''t prove even that; let alone which one I am.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked and Skull shot me a pitying look (yes through a full face skull mask don''t question it).


    ¡°I¡¯ve expected something like this from day one so some of our heists have specifically  targeted nobles who own... well owned, some of the thousand masks and I¡¯ve got twelve spare¡¯s up in my room.¡±


    ¡°So if they ask around about our crimes they¡¯ll find out that we stole these masks before anyone saw yours, so they can''t be sure you didn''t just take it!¡± I finished smiling widely. ¡°That''s brilliant!¡±


    ¡°Well I am an int...¡± She paused and looked at us. ¡°... I mean; my job requires me to be pretty devious.¡±


    ¡°What about you Bright?¡± Blood¡¯s voice sounded slightly shaky and I saw that she was gripping the hilt of her rapier again. ¡°I mean... are you thinking of going the Ara or Skull route?¡±


    I sighed and shrugged, ¡°I¡¯m going to go the Skull route, ditch the mask and hideout for a few months or as long as the Inquisitors around...¡± I felt the panic rising in me as I mentioned the name, ¡°I mean... we can''t fight them... you can''t... nobody can and if you try... you just die, you always die, you just have to hide... hide and pray and....¡±


    As I spoke my voice became shriller and shriller and I felt my chest begin to hurt again, my vision seemed to dim and I tasted copper. For a second I thought I was going to blackout until suddenly I felt something, something tiny which nonetheless extinguishes the rising tide of terror. Blood had reached out and taken my hand.


    ¡°Whoa there girl.¡± She whispered into my ear. For once her voice was entirely free of coldness or arrogance, no trace of teasing or sinful softness instead she just sounded... well like a normal teenage girl talking someone down from the edge of a panic attack. ¡°It¡¯s ok Bright; it¡¯s all ok, no matter what happens I promise I¡¯ll keep you safe,¡± then she pulled back slightly and rested her hands on my shoulders and looked me right in the eye. ¡°You''re my best friend after all.¡± She said and I could hear her smiling.


    I can still remember that moment all these eons later, when I''m tired or sad I can close my eyes and hear those soft words and that kindness again (or just call for Blood to come and give me a hug but I don''t like to bother her too much then or now).


    I started crying right then and there... Thankfully my mask meant they couldn¡¯t tell[132] I think they just thought that I wasn''t speaking. After a moment Blood hugged one of my arms and Skull took over the conversation.


    ¡°And what¡¯s your plan Blood?¡± She asked, obviously trying to give me a moment to calm down.


    ¡°Well I was thinking of making a stand and cutting a few Inquisitors to pieces,¡± replied Blood in her normal voice instantly back to the dancing laughing hellion persona. ¡°...But I recognise that even I can''t beat an entire army singlehanded. I¡¯d like to follow Ara¡¯s lead but I''m probably stuck following yours.¡±


    Skull squared her shoulders and looked around at us. ¡°Ok then it¡¯s agreed we scatter and follow our individual plans, we¡¯ll meet back up right here on the last day of the season of Frost next eon until then nobody uses this hideout.¡±


    ¡°Good idea,¡± said Ara, ¡°I just wish that....¡± But whatever Ara was about to wish we never ever found out because just behind us someone spoke.


    ¡°Uh... hello can you hear me?¡±

 Month of Frost - Part 3

    Sometimes I still blush at how slowly I reacted back then. Next to me Blood had her rapiers in her hands so fast I could almost hear the air hiss. Across the table Ara, who had until then been apparently unarmed, produced a pair of daggers from thin air with the grace and ¨¦lan of a stage magician. Skull simply slipped a hand into vest and looked over my shoulder, not quite as intimidating as the other two at face value but I could hear the ticking the clockwork grenade she had just primed, generally agreed to have all the stopping power of a enraged mother bear being shot out of a cannon.


    I stood there for a second entirely bemused and befuddled by the change from friendly commiseration to frantic attentiveness. Then I stopped gawking like a country girl seeing her first city and spun to see... nothing. Not nothing as in ¡°nothing apart from the barely visible figure in the corner¡± or the nothing of ¡°an empty window and a retreating shadow¡± I mean literally nothing apart from an old cupboard missing one of its doors.


    I lowered my mace (which I had rather belatedly raised) and glanced around nervously. After a few seconds I felt Skull move up next to me (Blood had given me her special training now so I could feel people looking at me... it''s nicer than it sounds... really) whilst Blood circled the edge of the room staring into shadows and peering under tables. After a moment I looked up at Ara, who was hovering protectively over me, then across at Skull who shrugged. Turning back to the empty air I cleared my throat and spoke.


    ¡°Uh... Yes?¡±


    Not exactly my greatest turn of phrase but come on I was talking to thin air.


    ¡°Ah yes good I wasn''t sure this would work...¡± The voice now I could hear more of it was... odd. Female and smooth as syrup with the perfect elocution of a noble (or at least a fine education) but it had a strange cadence to it, an echo, like we were hearing the words spoken from the bottom of a deep well.


    The most worrying part though was that I still couldn''t figure out where the unseen speaker was speaking from, my ears were telling me the voice was coming directly from the empty space in front of me. ¡°Look I don''t have much time...¡± the voice faded away as if the speaker was leaving then suddenly snapped back into audibility, ¡°...I can''t keep this up for long. Inquisitor Nightsbane is after you and he¡¯s got a platoon of pyre-guards and a black barge with him; and he knows where you are. You need to run NOW!¡± And with that the voice stopped instantly, it didn''t even leave an echo.


    If I had thought my heart was beating hard before now it was threatening to hammer its way out of my chest I could feel sick rising in my throat as I remembered... Nightsbane... the apprentice from all those years ago, now all grown up and one of the worst of the Inquisition[133] from what I¡¯d heard. I nearly collapsed but I managed to keep myself upright mainly thanks to Ara slipping a surreptitious grey hand under my shoulder.


    I knew it wasn''t normal to react to the Inquisition like this but after what happened to my family I really don''t like them. You know if you see like... a spider or something and you just freak out it¡¯s like that. Skull has a word for it that even my classical education never taught me...photoboardian?[134]


    I turned to the others and snapped. ¡°Ok no more debating or plans let¡¯s go NOW!¡±


    Blood nodded and turned to the trophy cabinet, smashed its top in with an elbow before I could react. She began rummaging through it removing the choicest pieces and stashing them in a bag she produced from her pocket.


    Skull shook her head and muttered, ¡°so we just believe a disembodied voice?¡± But even as she criticised us she dashed towards the stairs and vanished up to her room where I heard the sound of rustling paper and slamming draws.


    Ara for her part didn''t immediately burst into action instead she glanced at me and hooked a thumb over her shoulder towards the two looters. ¡°Do you want anything from here?¡±


    I giggled nervously and shook... all over but I had only intended to shake my head. ¡°No no I just want to leave, Blood will grab anything valuable and Skull anything incriminating then we can go; and quickly.¡±


    Before I could follow up on those words Skull pelted down the stairs, her arms full of loose leaf paper, ¡°we¡¯ve got company!¡± She bellowed as she half stumbled off the bottom step spilling documents everywhere. ¡°It¡¯s a black barge! That weird voice was telling the truth; it¡¯s coming up the canal!¡±


    ¡°How do you know?¡± asked Ara, her voice only vaguely interested without a trace of the panic that was clawing its way down my throat and into my lungs. ¡°We don''t have any windows. Did you have one put in?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve stashed mirror shards on the rooftops around here... and down in our escape tunnel... along the waterfront stalls... in the canal walls.... most places really.¡±


    ¡°That''s both impressive and scary,¡± said Ara with a sly smile. ¡°You haven¡¯t got any in our rooms have you?¡±


    Skull seemed to radiate blush. ¡°What... I... I''m... I''m not going to peep on my best friend you... you are insufferable!¡± Ara just laughed and winked at her.


    ¡°You¡¯re really cute when you¡¯re angry.¡±


    Skull threw a book at her as Blood arrived back.


    ¡°Uh... what¡¯s going on?¡±


    Ara shrugged. ¡°Skull says the Inquisitions here.¡±


    Before we could say anything else Skull reached into her sleeve and pulled out a beautiful clasp mirror. It was a real work of art a 907th eon Du¡¯varly if I''m any judge (and I really am, believe me, my father made sure of that hours and hours of ¡°guess the artisan¡± in the treasure room, I honestly think if we¡¯d had any heirloom knives I¡¯d have stabbed him at some point) with incredible fine gilt filigree all over its surface.


    Pausing to make sure she had our attention Skull flicked it open and held it up. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure this will work.¡± She said with a slight grunt of effort.


    As before us the mirrored surface rippled and writhed, our reflections deforming more and more grotesquely before, with an extremely faint chime and an unaccountable scent of liquorice, they changed entirely. Now we were looking at the canal outside our hidden base.


    The sun was still hours from rising and only one gibbous sister was hanging in the sky casting her pale light across the night shrouded city of Prasus, combined with the guttering glow of a handful of dimly visible streetlights it was just enough to see by. For a long moment I couldn''t see anything but darkness then I realised, the darkness was moving. In the distance; lights were eclipsed momentarily as something pitch black glided across in front of them. I knew what it was of course but I still flinched as a candle glow caught its metal and made it shine.


    The sun was still hours from rising and only one sister was hanging in the sky, aided by a handful of guttering street lanterns she tried valiantly to illuminate the deep night turning it into a shadowy sort of fog that stung the eyes to see. In this strange clinging haze of light and darkness I could see a depthless blackness moving. It was so dark I could only see it by seeing where its bulk blackened distant lights, eclipsing them as it slid past. I knew what it was but still I nearly yelped when it glided past a distant lantern and we saw light flash off painted metal and shining blades.


    A black barge the feared personal transports of the Inquisition designed specifically to move around Prasus¡¯ canal system and deliver platoons of pyre-guard to the doorstep of anyone who opposed the Arch-Doge. It also came with a pre-built gallows on the top deck and an oil soaked stake for burning heretics alive.


    I could say it was ominous looking but I would be lying. It was just so ostentatiously over the top in every conceivable way that it bypassed scary and went straight to ridiculous, I mean there were spikes on fake metal skulls which then had their own spikes on which ALSO had skulls on. I''m sure it was supposed to be intimidating but all I could think was ¡°how does that thing even float?¡±Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    As we watched the mirrored surface shimmered slightly and the viewpoint changed to a windowsill on the other side of the street, the wooden frame just visible in the peripheral edges of the mirror.


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be running?¡± I asked desperately.


    ¡°They might not know exactly where we are...,¡± began Skull as the black barge drew to a stop. ¡°See they¡¯ve docked halfway up the river.¡±


    ¡°I still don''t think we should be waiting here!¡± I squealed, my voice nearly breaking with nervousness.


    Skull looked up at me for a second and her pose softened noticeably. ¡°You are right of course Bright, I apologise, my curiosity got the better of me... Let¡¯s go.¡±


    I sighed in relief and led the charge up the stairs where we piled into one of the seemingly unused rooms on the second floor. We crowded in all at once Skull and Ara stood by the door as I paced the floor and Blood rushed to a huge old wardrobe that sat incongruously in the corner of the empty space. After a moment spent cursing the lack of handholds she got a grip on the piece of bulky stolen furniture and dragged it away from the wall revealing a ragged hole in the plaster.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go already!¡± Sang Blood waved us by her then dragging the wardrobe back into place. The rough hewn room beyond was originally meant to be a staircase up to the attic but when the district fell it still wasn''t finished so they had just sealed it up. Blood told me she¡¯d been ¡°practising¡± (with what she refused to say) when she¡¯d broken the wall open and found the ladder. Luckily for us Earln wood is pretty sturdy even after years of darkness and damp but it still creaked and groaned ominously as we climbed.


    When I arrived at the stale dead attic Skull had already lit a lantern and was waiting for us by a section of exposed roof tiling. Outside these looked perfectly normal but from inside one could easily see that they lacked the wooden support struts of the rest of the roof meaning that the entire plate of porcelain tiles could simply be lifted outwards and dropped onto the street below.


    To the sound of Blood kicking the ladder into scrap wood behind us I darted over to the trick roof section and helped Ara leaver it out of its housing. For a handful of painfully long seconds we sweated and panted over the architecture then, without warning, the mould of eons gave way and the mass of tiles jerked upwards. For a moment we staggered back and forth then I went to throw it out onto the street.


    ¡°Don''t!¡± hissed Skull urgently, ¡°they¡¯ll hear it,¡± even as she said that she blew her lantern out leaving us only the sickly light of the single sister and the distant sputtering street lanterns to guide our way. ¡°Just drop it on the floor and let¡¯s go.¡±


    As we followed Skulls directions she reached into her sleeve again and withdrew the mirror. Whilst we set the rack of shingle down ever so gently she squinted into the tiny sliver of glass for a moment and then cursed.


    ¡°What¡¯s gone wrong now?¡± Asked Ara the husky bur of her accent was deeper than normal and her voice held no trace of its usual good humour.


    Skull hissed in anger and held the mirror to face the three of us again. ¡°The Inquisitor and his mob have spread out across the street and they¡¯ve got line of sight on our roof, the second we leave they¡¯ll see us.¡± I just stared at the other three, feeling horror fill my lungs with ice.


    ¡°You mean we¡¯re trapped?¡± I squealed utterly terrified.


    Skull flinched slightly obviously wishing she¡¯d phrased it differently but not able to disagree, Ara just shrugged unhappily as I turned my gaze to her but Blood... well Blood literally never gives up.


    ¡°Not yet,¡± she whispered with an audible grin, ¡°I¡¯ll find us a way out, I''m the smallest and the stealthiest so they won¡¯t notice me,¡± as she said this she looked over at me and patted me on the shoulder. ¡°Chin up Bright... we¡¯ll get through this.¡± And with that she was gone over the lip and out onto the moonlit rooftop.


    For a moment we all held our breath but there were no sounds of alarm or pursuit, turning back to the mirror with a muttered ¡°how does she do that?¡± Skull began to scry the street outside and lacking any other distraction I leant on her shoulder and looked into the mirror as well. (I think I rather annoyed her but she was too kind to point this out[135]). Ara crowded in as well leading Skull to sigh and hold the mirror up higher so everyone could get a good view.


    As we watched the shining surface swum and we saw the street outside once again, just like before it was dim and dark but this time it was also filled with soldiers; a good two dozen pyre-guards who had were spread out around the moored barge lead by... by an Inquisitor.


    Now at the time I was too terrified to really notice any details but Skull wasn''t so I¡¯ve borrowed some of her journals and gotten a proper description.


    He wore the traditional voluminous dark grey robes of an Inquisitor; long enough to cover the ankles but hemmed above the floor. His woollen smock was nearly obscured by the seven long billowing sashes which wound around it; each a different colour and material, some were matte, some see-through, some speckled with glittering gems. Along his arms and legs ran the traditional jolnek fighting blades of the Inquisition, long steel cutting blades attached to the flat of his forearm and back of his shin and on his chest sat the symbol of his office, an Arcanum.


    As for the man himself, he was much as I remembered him, tall and lithe like a dancer with long raven black hair tied in a loose ponytail with a red ribbon. All in all he looked like a young noble out on a tear about the dark side of town but the second you saw his eyes you couldn''t mistake him for anything other than an inquisitor, they were dead and cold inside like the eyes of man who can already see you dead... and likes what he sees.


    Clustered around him were other shapes, all smaller than him. These were obviously inquisitorial initiates (and thus all pure humans), there were two males and two females all of about our age. The boys both looked similar enough to be twins both short and stocky with pale skin and muscular builds whilst the girls looked almost nothing alike. The first was tall and thin with porcelain skin like a noble and looked nearly undernourished whilst the second the shortest of the group, she had deep black skin and leanly muscled limbs and she seemed; alert. All four of the initiates had their hair shaved down to nothing more than head fuzz and all four wore masks.


    Now Nightsbane didn''t of course, in fact he was often fawned over by a certain kind of noble woman for his appearance and so I had been forced to listen to far too many descriptions of his countenance whilst on the hunt for my liking.  But the lesser initiates did all four of their faces hide behind white porcelain death masks of saints with wide open eyes and disapprovingly pursed lips.


    It was tradition that initiates hid their faces from the mages they hunted so that they couldn''t be cursed, the same reason in fact that they replaced their original names with saints names (Did you think Nightsbane was born Nightsbane?).


    Only Inquisitors faced battle bare skinned since they had mastered all seven cycles of the Art and could block such curses... or some such nonsense honestly most of this is second hand information I got from... well... someone you¡¯re going to meet soon enough.


    Anyway, back to the story. I remember I was just looking at the initiates and wondering whether I could take even one down on my own; when Nightsbane stepped back inside the black barge and emerged with a pack of gryshk straining on the end of a dozen long metal leads. The tracking cats fought each other as they tumbled down the barges gangplank and onto the street then Nightsbane barked a command at them in a language I couldn¡¯t understand causing them to part gracefully and stare at him, after a moment he gestured up the street and snapped off another sentence in that strange hissing tongue[136]. The gryshk exploded into motion dashing away into the darkness dragging Nightsbane after them. I could hear their muted hissing echoing across the rooftops and through the hole in our wall (Skulls'' mirrors see greatly but they can''t hear, luckily this wasn''t a problem for long).


    As the sound got closer and closer I felt myself tensing. No I remember thinking No please Koth no no no please don''t know where we are but of course they did. On the pavement outside our hideout the gryshk stopped, fought on another for a second, then sniffed deeply and pointed their snouts directly at our home.


    I began to hyperventilate, sucking in the raw cold predawn air as Skull swore vociferously next to me. If I hadn''t been having a panic attack I¡¯m sure I would have blushed bright red; for a noble woman she knew a plethora of words that I didn''t even know existed and would have preferred never to learn. Ara seemed to find the hilarity greater than the danger of our current situation and was oscillating between silent professionalism and barely suppressed giggles as Skulls smooth cultured voice hissed and peaked as she outlined the proclivities of the Arch-Doge¡¯s mother in relation to large sailors.


    As her tirade began to wind down the pyre-guard finished stamping to a halt outside the visible door to our hideout... remember that our base was the second unfinished building shell attached to the back of a (once) fully furnished building. Yes, all the furniture had by now been stolen, burned or in some cases eaten but the house itself still stood and worked as effective camouflage since people¡¯s eyes just skipped over the windowless rear half and focused on the nearly burned out front.


    So you can understand it was with some amusement[137] that we watched the feared and supposedly smart Inquisitor lead his trail of initiates up to our decoy door. There he silently raised a hand with all five fingers extended[138] slowly he began to lower them, one by one, as the guards drew their swords and the initiates readied their fighting blades. As his last finger fell Nightsbane kicked the door inwards and with a sudden explosion of noise and movement the Purity Knights charged into the building... at the time it didn''t occur to me that I couldn''t see Nightsbane anymore.

 Month of Frost - Part 4

    As the assembled fanatics stormed our hideout and cries of ¡°come and be purified abominations!¡± and ¡°only in death will your sins be absolved!¡± floated up to us through the floorboards Ara and Skull looked at me and gently took hold of my shoulders... and maybe pulled me out of the burrow I had made on the side of our roof.


    ¡°Bright it¡¯s going to be ok Blood¡¯s finding us a way out.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll be fine Bright, they don''t know we¡¯re here and they can''t get up to us anyway.¡±


    ¡°But there in the street!¡± I nearly cried. ¡°They¡¯re all around us! By Koth if they find us...¡±


    ¡°Luckily that won¡¯t happen.¡± Said familiar silk soft voice, turning around I saw Blood standing next to the hole in the shingle with Hermosa balanced on her shoulder, the huge albino raven nodded at me.


    ¡°I¡¯ve had the ravens leave their aviary they¡¯re scouting for us. It seems the pyre-guards have formed a cordon around the whole of Beggars Row probably so the Inquisitor can get the kill credit... prick.¡±


    I actually giggled at that, a nervous stress filled giggle, but a giggle nonetheless.


    Ara smiled at me then looked pointedly at Blood, ¡°Bright¡¯s been doing well since you left but she might need a little best friend time ok?¡±


    Blood bounced slightly at that. ¡°Oh Yay!¡± She exclaimed happily and leaping forwards she hugged my arm to her chest. Again the second she touched me it was like the whole world just slid back into focus, all the fear and hate and the awful memories of that bloody night just blew away like they had never been.


    As Ara walked over to Hermosa I turned to Blood, ¡°thank you,¡± I whispered into her ear but Blood just shook her head at me, ¡°always,¡± was all she said, ¡°always¡±.


    After a few more seconds during which nothing much happened and I certainly didn''t nearly start crying, Ara joined our huddle, ¡°well Hermosa is an amazingly good artist for a raven,¡± she said perfunctorily. ¡°As far as I can tell the ring around the district isn¡¯t complete yet; there¡¯s still some space for us to slip through.¡± Below us I heard another door be kicked open as booted feet thundered on bare floorboards followed by more religious mania and disappointment.


    For a second I felt like everything was going to be alright. Which was of course when Koth decided to kick me in the ribs.


    ¡°Our tunnel!¡± we spun to see Skull staring into her mirror with a distinctly alarmed air. ¡°Our tunnel, oh slet, they found it!¡±


    ¡°What... but they''re still searching the house?¡± For a moment my surprise overcame my fear.


    Skull cursed again. ¡°It was a diversion! Most of the guards stormed the house whilst the Inquisitor went after our tunnel... he''s nearly at our hideout. How in the Abyss did he even find it?¡±


    Skull spun the mirror and to my horror I saw the Inquisitor and his four masked initiates (followed by a few of the pyre-guard who looked distinctly worse for wear) stood in the short wooden corridor at the end of our formerly hidden entrance tunnel.


    It looks like our traps, whilst effective, hadn''t been effective enough... but as a fire of panic grew in my chest I realised something was wrong with the image before me. After a moment I felt something in my head lurch and I saw it.


    ¡°Where''s the door?¡± The other two looked down at the mirror in puzzlement then at me obviously wondering if I had finally snapped.


    ¡°Well it¡¯s right there...¡± Blood''s finger bounced off the glass then she turned to me. ¡°It... it should be in front of them right?¡±


    We all took turns staring into the mirror at the blank wall then as one we looked at Skull who tilted her head in mirth at us.


    ¡°I threw a reflection over it! I replaced the image of our door with a reflection of the wall at the end of the corridor.¡±


    ¡°You set a magic trap?¡± I asked, astonished and intrigued in equal measure but she shook her head quickly. ¡°No it¡¯s just an illusion but it should keep them busy whilst we... wait... what is he doing?¡±


    On the silver surface before us we could see Nightsbane nodding with a look of satisfaction at the corridor before he turned to the initiates dogging his heel. The pyre-guard for their part where half crumbled against a wall looking very sorry for themselves, wearing ticksteel powered mail they may have been but Blood had a vicious imagination and real gift with traps.


    ¡°Now then,¡± he said in his rather pleasing baritone. ¡°Who can tell me what is wrong here?¡±


    Yes I did tell you earlier that Skulls'' mirrors can''t pick up sound and yes we were at the time just forced to watch a man pantomime in silence at his equally silent companions however... well I won¡¯t spoil things but let¡¯s just say that there were friendly ears nearby shall we?


    The initiates look around the corridor for a moment. Some closely inspected the walls and floor one lifted up a drape and peered behind it as another dug into the draws of a cabinet.


    ¡°I''m not sure sir,¡± said one of the boys shrugging. ¡°It¡¯s a dead end corridor, maybe the architect never finished the house?¡±Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    ¡°The wall.¡±


    The group turned to the tall pale initiate who sketched a bow to Nightsbane. ¡°Sir... the wall at the end of this corridor is identical to the one near the stairwell down to the scrapes and scratches on the mortar. That doesn''t ever happen.¡±


    ¡°Precisely,¡± said Nightsbane, sounding pleased. ¡°Which implies...?¡±


    ¡°That the blasphemies we are chasing have used dastardly magic to hide?!¡±exclaimed the male initiate obviously hoping to score some points back. ¡°So we need to smash the wall down!¡±


    Nightsbane sighed and clicked his tongue against his teeth, ¡°no no no.... we are the Inquisition we have more sophisticated and effective methods than simple brute force. Besides as you would know if you studied your primer on our arch-enemy even if the physical wall was destroyed chances are that the illusion would stay where it was, it is a highly potent one after all.¡±


    ¡°How can you tell that sir?¡± Asked the other boy deferentially.


    ¡°Because Swain the mage who cast it is not here, the weak ones need their casters to stay near them to keep them existing, only the strongest ones can stay intact without a constant supply of aether from a mage.¡±


    ¡°And if presented with a source less illusion that it shall be classified as belonging to the ninth type and caution shall be taken for it may well be able to fool the hand and the ear of the faithful as well as the eye.¡± The tall pale girl said, the archaic language sounded like a quote.


    ¡°Precisely Valentine...and what does the primer suggest as a course of action when encountering an illusion of the ninth type?¡±


    The tall girl now identified as Valentine scratched the back of her head. Her mask hid her facial expressions but I felt that she was panicking slightly. ¡°Muster the holiness within ye and summon up the sigil of the fifth tier?¡±


    Nightsbane nodded and smiled. ¡°Ah but that is for full Inquisitors who have mastered the fifth tier of nullification. What does it suggest for those who cannot?¡±


    Valentine looked shifty for a second, her eyes darting then she clicked her fingers. ¡°Page 749, just below the coffee stain, if the powers of the fifth come for you not then present one bottle of moonlight and remove the cap and let the cleansing light of the sisters of the sun wipe away the imperfection of magic.¡±


    ¡°Excellent Valentine just what I would expect from you,¡± commended Nightsbane. ¡°Even with the page number! Very impressive.¡± As he turned to the door again the two boys began to pantomime disgust towards Valentine until she threw a clod of loose wall plaster at them. Throughout all this I noticed the short girl hadn''t moved a muscle, just stared at the corridor with dimly glinting hawk-like eyes.


    As we watched them, crowding around our mirror shard, Nightsbane reached into his cloak and pulled out... something. It looked rather like a long sheet silver tube with a shard of glowing white glass set into its side and a paper cork in one end. He gently lifted the phylum (as I was later informed it was called) into the air and with an almost reverential movement he uncorked it, instantly the tube spat a continuous stream of pure white light out of the new aperture. The light was soft and pale and it was unmistakably, at least for someone who spent so much time running the nighttime rooftops, moonlight.


    Even as we watched fascinated he swung the tube of moonlight towards the fake wall and as the light hit it the real door reappeared. You might hope it would fade away with a spray of twinkly stars or do something equally impressive but instead where the light fell the door was just there again, visible without any ceremony at all. Unfortunately for us Nightsbane had, by luck or judgment, revealed the door handle with his first burst of moonlight. The Inquisitor reached forwards slowly and seizing the handle muttered a few soft barbaric syllables[139] that made my stomach writhe and twist as the illusion... shattered, like a dropped mirror. All that was left was the door, now visible in its entirety. With a satisfied pursing of his lips Nightsbane re-corked his vial of moonlight and pointed down at the lock.


    ¡°Now this is interesting if I''m any judge. This is the stolen ticksteel lock of the Countess Du-Chelot. To think that the blasphemies have used it to protect themselves... they really have no shame,¡± he looked around at the pyre-guards and gestured one forwards. ¡°Ambrose be a good man and pick this will you?¡±


    All that panic I¡¯ve been telling you about? Well it was nothing compared to this. I swore, shivered and was nearly sick all over myself as the terror seized hold of my bones with icy claws.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go go gog og gogo gogog!¡± I babbled, the syllables merging until they were no longer words but a long series of O and G sounds lisping together.


    Blood grabbed me and dragged me over to the lip of the roof, ¡°this way,¡± she said soothingly, ¡°this way Hermiosa says there aren¡¯t any guards this way yet.¡± As Blood murmured to me almost maternally, Ara strode past us and hurled a dagger across the canal, its handle wound around with rope. There was a distant ping as the blade struck and stuck into the opposite rooftop then with a wave and a muted groan of effort Ara caused the rope to snap taut like a steel bar.


    As I looked at the rope I felt my stomach turning. I knew Ara took her magic seriously and had learned how to use it well and subtly over the eons, I knew I could trust her rope bridges but I didn''t really trust my trembling legs. Inquisitors used to make me panic really really badly, luckily I got over it but back then I was totally riddled with photoboardia[140].


    Ara looked at me and patted me on the shoulder. ¡°It¡¯s ok to take your time, we''re all fine.¡± As she said that she reached up and grabbed one of the ropes from her bandolier and began to wind it around her face.


    ¡°Yeah they aren¡¯t even in the hideout yet,¡± said Blood lightly. ¡°We¡¯ve got time to just take a deep breath.¡±


    I did as she suggested and found my gaze lingering on my friends; they have always been so kind to me even when we were in the most terrible situations. It¡¯s enough to bring a girl to tears, ¡°thank you three... I... wait...¡± I spun around and looked behind me. ¡°Skull?¡±


    The older girl was trailing along behind us by several metres. She seemed to be muttering under her breath she still stared into the mirror shard.


    ¡°How did they learn... must have been stolen during the purge... if only...¡± I tried to decipher the few words I heard drifting across the rooftop but gave up after a moment. I was scared, tired, cold and had completely run out of patience. I ran over to Skull and elbowed her in the ribs as hard as I could.


    ¡°Skull!¡±


    She started and turned to look at me then shook her head, ¡°right right I''m coming!¡± Quickly marrying action to words she scurried over to join us. For a second the four of us paused and jostled at the foot of the rope bridge trying to all get on at once. Then this queuing problem was neatly resolved by a sudden deafening crash almost like someone kicking an annoyingly unpickable locked door in.


    I jumped visibly as the sound of the impact echoed around the district, ¡°we need to seal that!¡± I said turning to the others and pointing at the gaping hole in our rooftop. Blood looked at me then back at our roof escape tunnel and nodded to herself.


    ¡°Oh I¡¯ve got this.¡± she whispered in a voice as sweet as sin and as soft as silk. Long experience with that tone of voice led me to turn my head away quickly as the rooftop was suddenly lit up by a new red sun.

 Month of Frost - Part 5

    Blood (entirely ignoring restraint, sanity and all of my and Skulls nagging) raised a hand above her head and poured every drop of her power and litres of her blood into a glowing crimson fireball. The caged inferno was nearly as big as she was and she held it suspended above her palm with magic. She paused for a moment and almost seemed to be counting then, with an almost coquettish air; she spun on her heel and hurled the magic over arm into the roof of our hideout. The explosion was apocalyptic... or so I''m told; the second Blood let go of the fireball I grabbed her around the waist and sprinted across Ara¡¯s rope bridge as fast as I could, with the tiny girl across my shoulders. All I remember about the actual explosion was a loud bang and a flash of searing heat all across my back and neck. Later I found out I had gotten a pretty good tan out of the ordeal.


    Blood as usual started complaining ten seconds after I picked her up, however her voice was much weaker than normal, barely audible over the crackling flames, and was completely drowned out when we arrived on the opposing rooftop and Skull began to bellow at her.


    ¡°AGAIN?! SERIOUSLY?! Do you NEVER learn?!¡± I dumped the barely there (both in weight and some days I think; sanity) Blood into Skulls arms before I turned back to Ara who with a wave of her hand caused her rope bridge to coil back onto her chest, after a moment the end of the rope pulled the dagger from the wall and sheathing it neatly in her bandolier. Ara paused and stared out at our burning hideout then turned to me.


    ¡°Is Blood going to be ok?¡± She asked, nodding at the bundle now being held in Skulls arms muttering Sotto voce insults at the taller girl who was as far as I can remember explaining in detail how the human circulatory system worked and why it needed a large amount of blood in it to continue doing so.


    I nodded as I stared at the distant flames. ¡°She heals quickly.¡± I murmured not taking my eyes off the inferno. As I watched our burning base I felt my heart twisting in my chest, it had been my home far more so than the Dutair mansion ever managed to be. I had laughed, lived and learned in that building without judgment or reprove, it was filled with treasures and treasured memories and it was burning before my eyes. I felt tears misting my vision as the argument behind us reached a new height.


    ¡°Let me up!¡±


    ¡°No! You¡¯re nearly exsanguinated, you can barely move a finger, just rest!¡±


    ¡°I need to see.¡±


    I heard a pause and a sigh. ¡°Ok.¡±


    Blood appeared in the corner of my eye draped over one of Skulls shoulders, the older girl drew her up to the edge of the building and Blood just stared at the flames.


    ¡°...you reckon the Inquisitor got out?¡±


    ¡°I doubt it.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡±


    I turned to my best friend and hearing the rawness in her voice I kicked myself. She had found our base, refurbished it, grown up in it, stocked it and brought me into it. If it was anybody¡¯s home it was hers and she had chosen to share it with me.


    I walked up to the girl and flung my arms around her drawing her masked face into my shoulder. ¡°I''m so sorry.¡±


    ¡°I burned it Bright... it was my choice... and it needed to be done.¡± She whispered into my hair still looking at the inferno.


    ¡°But I''m the one who asked you to...¡±


    ¡°And I''m the one who did it,¡± she replied, banging her mask against mine gently. ¡°Besides... all the important stuff is still with me.¡±


    I smiled around my tears and let her go. ¡°You say the sweetest things.¡±


    ¡°Of course I do,¡± she said with an audible smile. ¡°I''m perfect after all.¡±


    For a second we stood in silence then Ara hit me in the back of the head (she has very bony knuckles). ¡°Ok time to go.¡± She laughed as I staggered slightly.


    Shaking my head clear I stared up at her and looked around at the rooftops ¡°Where?¡±


    It was a valid question but Ara just shrugged with a nonplussed look, ¡°away,¡± she said simply as Skull shuffled forwards still balancing Blood on one shoulder.


    ¡°But no more dive bars,¡± murmured Blood as she gently pulled away from Skull and swayed onto her feet. ¡°I swear that tea had alcohol in it.¡±


    ¡°Of course it did,¡± replied Ara with evident astonishment. ¡°Can tea not?¡±


    ¡°Tea never should!¡± snapped Blood as me and Skull just stared at one another. ¡°Heathen swine you ...¡± I reached up and placed a hand over the mouth of Blood''s mask, mostly symbolic of course but it got my point across.


    ¡°Ara focus please!¡±


    ¡°Right,¡± she winked at Blood who looked down and I''m pretty sure blushed behind her mask, ¡°we¡¯ll have to finish this another time crimson cutie,¡± as Blood steadfastly refused to look up Ara gestured out at the sleeping city. ¡°Let¡¯s get running shall we?¡±


    And with that; we did. The four of us flew across the darkened rooftops still lit by the false dawn behind us. The wind whipped across our skin and ruffled our hair as the Prasus mist parted around us and I finally felt like we were going to be ok. I would have been feeling far less happy had I known that in a stinking tunnel under a burning building behind us a calm voice had just said.


    ¡°Now tell me Class, what did they just do wrong?¡±


    I don''t really remember much of our mad escape. I''m sure you understand that I was somewhat busy at the time. I may have thought that the Inquisitor was dead but I knew the guards were waiting for us and would chase us till the tide turns back[141] if they saw us so I still wasn''t totally calmed down. I remember... well, kind of, flashes. I remember me and Blood leaping over a low wall that turned out to lead into a river, only the quick reactions of Ara saved us from taking a very abrupt bath.


    There was a rooftop covered in plants, very pretty ones in fact, that Blood smashed to pieces as she rushed past kicking pots and bags of soil everywhere. I definitely remember drawing ahead from the others for a second and running around a corner to find a pair of watchmen standing there both now gawping at me.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    I was still trying to figure out what I should say to them when the rest of the Brigade arrived behind me, Ara buried a grey fist in one''s face shattering his nose as Skull bowled the other one over with a flying kick... or it might have been Blood who did that to be honest.


    I do remember at one point collapsing, I am a noble woman remember? I''m not exactly a physical paragon even with Bloods training and I was on the edge of a fear induced heart attack even before I attempted to run a marathon across Prasus.


    I can recall the exact moment that I toppled though, Blood and Skull were helping the stockier built Ara get over a wall as I jogged up behind them having fallen behind slightly. It was as I tried to make my foot lift to take the first step up the wall that I suddenly found myself flat on the floor staring at a moulded egg bun that someone had abandoned in the alley.


    For a second I found myself wondering who would be so wasteful as to discard at least half of a perfectly good egg bun, I mean it even had ketchup on it! As my exhausted brain actually began to wonder if it was possible to scrape the mould off, Blood was suddenly there.


    ¡°Oh Bright!¡± she exclaimed; for a second she sounded so worried... then her voice regained its normal mocking edge. ¡°You know you could do with being a little more fit.¡± She said, poking me in the stomach.


    ¡°Screw you, you awful little hellion.¡± I managed to reply after a moment. I sounded like a whale that had been beaten with an iron bar and then drowned in custard.


    Also I might have insulted her parentage for a bit and possibly her fashion sense; however I seriously doubt that she could understand me as I gasped and sputtered my way through the complex and vulgar vowel sounds. I am happy to say that it didn''t take me long to realise how stupid I was, lying on my face in an alley in an iron district insulting my best friend so I shut up and tried to haul myself back to my feet.


    Luckily Blood being Blood she just giggled at my breathy swearing. After a moment of struggling she grabbed me by my jerkin and lifted me bodily to my feet, she didn''t even seem to be sweating.


    ¡°How... do... you... do... this?¡± I managed as Skull and Ara grabbed my hands and Blood boosted me up the wall.


    ¡°Well I''m just naturally fit,¡± I heard her from behind me. ¡°Skulls got her super secret agent training and Ara used to be a smuggler.¡±


    ¡°This is not the first time I¡¯ve spent a whole night running away from the watch,¡± Ara said with a smile.¡±Only difference is that I can use my magic this time.¡±


    ¡°Speaking of,¡± I said, slumped on the wall still gasping. ¡°Why didn''t Skull just teleport us and save me all this running?¡±


    ¡°Do you know how hard it is to teleport four people?¡± Skull snapped with childish air to her voice that was really quite cute. ¡°Four people across the length of the city? I can barely make it to the next room without fainting!¡±


    ¡°Right... sorry...¡±


    Blood patted me on the back as I scrambled to my feet properly this time. I began to pinch at the material around my joints trying to give the developing sweat rashes a bit of air before the other three decided our break was over. Which they presently did, stomping off towards the edge again.


    ¡°Ok this is far enough...¡± I managed to pant, making my friends stop and turn to stare at me again. ¡°I mean... where are we going?¡±


    The others all looked at one another for a second then Blood laughed and Skull slapped herself in the masked face.


    ¡°Uh I guess just as far away as we can?¡± she said with an unusual amount of doubt in her voice, the others just shrugged in agreement as I hauled myself up to the crest of the rooftop and looked outwards over the sleeping city, it really is one of the most beautiful sights in the world. I was so young back then and I¡¯ve seen so much since but... there are few things as incredibly gorgeous in a cold way as the nighttime Prasus skyline. At the time though I glanced at it, shook my head in a tired way and stumbled over the rooftop towards the small but flourishing garden that sat against its far edge growing up the side of a taller (and a good deal more expensive looking) tower, the plants where nearly lost in the darkness but that didn''t matter to me, I could feel the life in them upon my skin. I took a handful of grapes and shoved them into my mouth as I munched the others assembled around me in the shadows of the rooftop trellises.


    ¡°What about Ara¡¯s plan?¡± Blood asked with a slightly nervous air ¡°I mean... I''m not that happy about running away but it might be the best idea.¡±


    ¡°I was planning to cling to the bottom of a cargo ship, you couldn''t come with me I''m afraid,¡± Ara sounded genuinely sad. ¡°You three can''t breathe underwater can you?¡±


    ¡°Probably not but you never know,¡± said Blood, back then I thought she was joking. ¡°And I can''t swim either...¡±


    ¡°What about just going over land... away from the city?¡± I asked. ¡°That way all four of us would still be together.¡±


    Skull shook her head slowly, ¡°that sounds nice Bright it really does but... I mean I know at least you two are nobles,¡± she looked at Ara for a second, ¡°I doubt that you are as well but I suppose there are stranger things,¡± Ara laughed as Skull continued. ¡°So we can''t just vanish; imagine if three people the same age and gender as three suspects disappear at the same time that they do. That wouldn''t make the Arch-Doge happy and he¡¯d probably burn our whole family just to make a point.¡±


    For a second some very unpleasant memories replayed themselves across the backs of my eyes until I shook them away, ¡°right... running away is impossible so that means... hiding? Get back to our maskless lives without the Inquisition following us and just lay low until people forget who we are, then come back with new outfits and don''t use magic.¡±


    ¡°Safest way.¡± Agreed Ara, when I turned to Blood to confirm our plan I found her in earnest whispering conference with a large white raven.


    ¡°Oh Hermiosa,¡± I greeted her. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were here.¡± She spared me a nod of her head and a caw of greeting before going back to whispering to Blood. The pair of them looked distinctively conspiratorial as they huddled there in the darkness.


    ¡°We need to find a new hideout as well.... maybe on a dock spur?¡± Ara added the cawing of ravens underlining her speech. ¡°Do you think the Crawlers still need their warehouse?¡±


    ¡°I think the watch might be... well... watching it don''t you?¡±


    ¡°Maybe but where there¡¯s one abandoned warehouse there¡¯ll be others, we could hide out there until we¡¯re sure we¡¯re not being followed then just vanish back into the city leaving our masks behind.¡±


    ¡°I can''t see another way out,¡± I said sadly. ¡°I...¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡±


    The three of us stopped mid plot and looked at Blood who now had Hermiosa perched on her shoulder. The huge albino raven looked at us with a disapproving crimson eye.


    ¡°Yes Blood?¡± I asked even with her mask on (or especially with it on considering that that was the only way I had ever known her) I could feel the concern radiating off her.


    ¡°The pyre-guards are forming a cordon.¡±


    ¡°We knew that Blood,¡± said Skull with an edge of sarcasm. ¡°You told us before rem....¡±


    ¡°No idiot,¡± snarled Blood ¡°Here! Now! Around this building!¡±


    That got everyone''s attention you can be sure. Skull instantly spun on the spot and started to scan the horizon, Ara started to finger the knives in her bandolier as I... desperately tried to stop myself from sinking to the ground in terror. Not my finest moment but even after all these years I still get cold shivers remembering that feeling of peace and freedom fading away.


    ¡°How?!¡± Hissed Skull not looking back.


    ¡°Hermiosa can''t tell, she says that the guards lost us whilst we were running but the second we stopped they all started moving towards us again.¡±


    ¡°What? But we¡¯ve only been here a few minutes, they can''t have seen us!¡±


    Blood shook her head. ¡°I don''t think they did but even if they had they couldn''t have gotten organized that fast... also some more bad news,¡± I remember distinctly that I muttered what it was going to be a second before Blood did, I just knew Koth was about to kick me in the head again. ¡°The Inquisitor is still alive.¡±


    ¡°Bugger,¡± I swore, stamping my foot. ¡°We should have gone back in and finished him off or locked the doors or... or...¡±


    ¡°Too late now,¡± said Skull with finality. ¡°Move.¡±

 Month of Frost - Part 6

    I wobbled to my feet and we moved off. Painfully slowly at first but building up speed as we leapt from roof to roof and I found myself relying more and more on my grapple-mace as my legs began to slow down. I think it just shows how fogged my brain was at the time that I didn''t see the problem I was creating. Luckily for my state of mind I was oblivious to my impending (near) doom so I followed the others as we hopped across the city using our preferred aerial paths. Before long we alighted on the very edge of the district hanging like gargoyles from the tiled roof of a counting house that protruded slightly across the canal border of the tiny pseudo-island... and that''s when things really went wrong for me.


    As the other three looked around, scouting paths and exits I instead looked down... down... down at the pavement so very far below me and the scuttling soldiers that covered it. Now I remembered Hermiosa saying there would be pyre-guards but seeing them was something else entirely. As I watched from our perch I saw rank after rank of warriors stride down the dark streets below me lit only by their burning braziers held high. In the flickering half light the black ticksteel armour they wore made them seem like a horde of hellish insects, a tide of giant ants looking for prey.


    As I stared, a rich blossom of terror wound its way around my heart again and began to slow my limbs and choke my lungs. It filled me as the others moved on, it flowered as they climbed the nearby wall and it blossomed as they stopped and turned to me.


    I found my limbs were suddenly made of ice and my lungs from lead. Looking up at my friends I tried to bite down the terror that was smothering me and look resolute and brave. Rolling my shoulders meaningfully (Which unlike in the action books I¡¯d read didn''t make me feel any less tired) I staggered forwards, lumbered to the edge of the rooftop and leapt into the air with all the grace of an elephant pushed off a cliff.


    As I flailed and fell I levelled my mace at the rapidly vanishing rooftop, pulled the shining steel trigger and... *pfffff* that muted hiss as the empty pressure tank sighed out its last dregs of gas would never leave me and even now after all these long eons I can still remember pulling the trigger again and again as I fell faster and further down into the dark.


    *Wham*


    I slammed into the ground... luckily in retrospect (but which I definitely didn''t appreciate at the time) a huge pile of refuse had built up in the alley which broke my fall (as opposed to my bones). Even with the soft landing however I still had the breath knocked out of me and to be perfectly honest with you I think I was suffering from shock. I remember completely fixating on my mace and why it hadn''t fired, even as I heard the other three cursing and gasping above me I just glared at my grapnel and tried to pry out the gas cylinder (which I had designed to be impossible until all pressure was bled off, I was really out of it) even as I heard the others clambering more towards me I just kept stared at the gasket housing of the tank and wonder how to swap it out.


    ¡°Bright Bright!¡± again in retrospect and it¡¯s maybe not the best thing to think buuuut... Blood sounds really cute when she is worried. ¡°Are you ok?¡±


    ¡°Can you get up?¡± whispered Skull. ¡°Do we need to come down?¡±


    I continued to try to fumble a change of tank into my grapple mace whilst poking at the casing and checking the action on the pressure regulator. I didn''t even look up as armoured feet pounded past the alley; just kept staring at my malfunctioning construction.


    ¡°The pressure tanks are gone,¡± I said firmly. ¡°It needs to be changed.¡±


    ¡°What... now?¡± Blood asked, obviously baffled. ¡°But the...¡±


    ¡°It needs to be changed.¡±


    ¡°Oh I¡¯ve seen this before,¡± said Ara. ¡°Right... I know how to snap her out of it...¡±


    ¡°How?¡± Queried Skull


    ¡°Just gimme that brick.¡±


    I heard a faint whistling sound and then a heavy tile slammed into the back of my head. The bloom of pain was chased by a surge of burning blood that coursed through my entire body and blew the strange cold webbing in my mind away. I bolted upright, landed on my wavering feet and swung my mace wildly back and forth through the empty air. After a second my heart stopped racing quite so fast and I looked up at the three masks protruding over the roofline two dozen metres above me. Blood waved at me companionably then gestured to her right.


    ¡°Bright, we''re coming down for you, stay there and try to keep quiet.¡±


    ¡°What... What happened... Ara threw a rock at me!¡±


    ¡°Bright, the pyre-guard is in the next street.¡± Skull whispered in the flat monotone of someone holding back their emotions only with significant effort.


    I went very very quiet as I''m sure you would expect as behind my mask my eyes bulged with terror.


    ¡°One minute...¡± Blood said her voice was reassuring and strong. ¡°Just stay put.¡±


    With that my three friends vanished. For a moment I heard light feet skimming across porcelain tiles and then nothing at all.


    I didn''t know what to do so rather than panic pointlessly I sat back down and fished the backup pressure tank out of my tabard. Slotting it into the web of gas pipes and pressure regulators that ran along the handle of my mace took only a moment but the new pressure tank wouldn¡¯t work until the system had vented so I opened up a rubberised valve and was rewarded with a faint hissing and a musty smell like dust in an old library.


    I wasn''t a master of the machine or anything, I had in fact often lamented being forced to learn so much about them, but in that alley on that night it was curiously comforting to focus on something as small and controllable as properly seating a pressure tank and ensuring even system bleed.


    It was certainly better than focusing on my surroundings. Not only was it a fetid reeking garbage pile I was in but I could hear the footsteps thundering past my alley. I desperately tried not to focus on the marching pyre-guard in their clanking powered plate armour the distant baying gryshk, or the smell of smoke from pre-lit sacrificial braziers which pooled in the alley (and thankfully somewhat overwhelmed the more organic odours around me).


    It was as I was thinking this that I heard a much closer sound, a sound like... well like a very stealthy footfall accidentally knocking a discarded bottle aside.


    Looking up at the mouth of the alleyway I felt my heart stop... People use that expression in many plays and books but I truly believe I felt mine really stop beating for at least three (what should have been) beats. In the mouth of the alley was an initiate. I couldn¡¯t make out which one in the shadows but I could see the angelic white death''s head mask they wore and the fighting blades affixed to their limbs, smaller reflections of the ones that Nightsbane wore.


    The figure stood stock still in the mouth of the alley. I looked at them, they presumably looked at me. Neither of us moved a muscle then... without warning, the initiate... turned their back on me and walked away.


    Seriously.


    They didn''t say anything or make any gestures or leave a note or anything they just looked at me then walked away. If what had happened later hadn''t happened later I would probably have ended up thinking that I imagined the whole thing.


    As it was I was still sitting staring bug eyed at the mouth of the alleyway when from the blackness behind me three figures appeared at a dead run.


    Blood took one look at me, waved a hand in front of my face and (when I didn''t react) lifted me bodily and shot away across the cobbles again. As Blood climbed a wall (with the aid of a few of Ara¡¯s ropes, even Blood is slowed down by holding a whole girl in her arms) I found myself gradually coming back to my senses. After a minute or so Blood was able to put me back on my feet again as we huddled for a moment under a flowering trellis, I finished my maces repairs and the others argued. Then off we went, the four of us leaping the districts encircling the canal and vanishing into the night leaving the pyre-guards and that strange silent initiates far behind us.


    We ran and ran for hours. If it wasn''t for my short ride in Bloods arms I¡¯d have fallen behind in moments. As it was I was able to keep up for a while but.... we ran for hours, literally hours, and I was still a pampered noble woman.


    Skull was leading us on our flight and she had us double back, triple back, triple forwards and even steal cloaks and bed sheets from clothes lines to throw over our outfits. She led us from stop to stop across the city in our unceasing flight until panting and half dead with exertion we managed to pull ourselves up the wall to our last stop, a tiny restaurant we had spotted earlier and had been circling for the better part of an hour.


    Now having checked all approaches Skull was finally sure it was deserted and we barged in, Blood cutting the lock out of the door and all four of us falling with glee on the cold food we found inside. The ¡°food¡± was mostly ingredients halfway through preparation ready to be finished tomorrow but we didn''t care.


    Scattering a handful of gold across the table that would have bought the entire shop twice over, Skull turned to the rest of us and belched[142] genteelly before adjusting her mask.


    ¡°Do you think we lost them?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know...¡± I gasped. ¡°But nobody could have followed us, NOBODY! We changed disguise like eight times, split up whilst crossing that artisan district, doubled back so many times my head started spinning. There is no way anyone could have followed us through all of that.¡±


    ¡°But we still don''t know how they found us the first time.¡± Said Skull, the only one of us not out of breath or at least the only one not showing it.


    ¡°They must have had guards following us, that''s all, just really good ones we couldn''t see or hear or....¡± Blood trailed off and shrugged.


    ¡°I''m afraid it¡¯s not that simple.¡± Said a slightly tinny voice directly behind us, given how tired we were, our subsequent lack of proper etiquette can probably be justified. Ara swore loudly and colourfully, Blood jumped and drew her rapiers and Skull obviously not prepared to deal with this... excrement anymore blindly hurled a knife over my shoulder towards the sound.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    I turned slowly exhausted and scared but found nothing. Well nothing but a dozen pots hanging from rails and a half emptied chill-cupboard[143] with a knife stuck in the door. After a moment I realised it was up to me to take the initiative.


    ¡°Why hello again mystery voice.¡± I said as calmly as I could. After a moment I heard what sounded like distant rustling but somehow... nearby? Look it¡¯s very hard to explain, what I thought I heard was a far away sound but somehow I was hearing it up close.


    ¡°The Inquisitor is still tracking you. The pyre-guard is trying to lock you down again.¡±


    We looked at one another for a second exhaustion and annoyance written across our forms. Blood just half turned to the window and cocked her head at the large raven sitting there which nodded once.


    I sighed deeply at that before turning to the others ¡°Ok we give up, how is he doing it?¡±


    ¡°He''s tracking the fire mages magical signature, it¡¯s a trick that 5th ranks and above can do using magical resonance. She used so much magic near him that he can follow her to the ends of the world if he needs to; it¡¯s impossible for her to escape now.¡± The voice faded away for a second as it spoke then returned sharply like the speaker had been forced to turn their head mid sentence.


    That got our attention, you better believe. The Arch-Doge was more than smart enough to make sure that the fact that Inquisitors could track mages'' magic never made its way into the public consciousness. In fact even us nobles are never taught that it¡¯s possible instead were just fed a load of claptrap about Koth guiding his faithful or some such.


    I turned to Blood and saw the tiny girl tremble slightly for a second before she stilled.


    ¡°Is there a way to stop him?¡± asked Skull loudly in the air. ¡°Can we... block her magic or something?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know,¡± replied the voice, it sounded fainter and more desperate now. ¡°The others are moving; he''s closing in, you need to....¡± then suddenly we heard a sound like an opening door and then dead silence. After a moment we realised no more would be forthcoming.


    ¡°Well the magical mystery voice has spoken.¡± I murmured to the others.


    ¡°I... still don''t trust her, whoever she is,¡± said Skull slowly. ¡°And she said she wasn''t sure this would work... I wonder...¡±


    ¡°Stay focused Skull, where were you going with that sentence?¡± Ara asked.


    Skull shrugged and looked like she would be blushing under her mask. ¡°Right... Uh... I don''t think we should just trust this strange person who is able to talk out of thin air...Buuut at this point I find it hard to believe she is trying to lead us into a trap... if you¡¯re sure that the Inquisition is on the way here?¡±


    Blood looked at the raven who nodded again. ¡°Yeah they are.¡±


    ¡°In that case it would be easier for the Inquisition just not to warn us, especially not to warn us that they can track our magic... I think she¡¯s probably on our side but I still don''t know why or how she''s talking to us.¡±


    Blood looked at us all silently for a second then sighed, ¡°you guys need to find somewhere safe to hideout, an embassy or something I''m sure Skull and Ara known a few boltholes around the city so Bright just follow them ok? I....¡± she paused and laughed quietly and bitterly. ¡°I¡¯m going for a walk, it may be a while.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± Asked Ara slowly and pointedly causing Blood to sigh again.


    ¡°What do you think Ara? There¡¯s no way I''m getting out of this and I''m not dragging you down with me. I figure if he''s tracking me I¡¯ll give him something to track, lead him miles away from you into the depths of the city, find a nice quiet dark place to wait in and see just how good a fighter this Inquisitor really is.¡±


    Ara looked at Blood for a long second as I felt my blood turning cold and the sides of my vision turning black, I¡¯ve never fainted but I honestly think I was only a few seconds away from doing so then.  ¡°And you won¡¯t walk away from that. Your good Blood, I mean Abyss for a girl your age you''re crazy good but they are trained adults. They are much better and they have backup... you¡¯d die.¡±


    Blood just shrugged and turned away. ¡°Yeah... but everyone goes sometimes right? Better this way than the other I say.¡±


    Aras hand shot out so fast that I could barely see it and she wrapped her fingers around Bloods shoulder hauling her back and turning her so that the two women were standing eye to eye socket, ¡°no... no no NO that''s not going to happen I¡¯ve never sacrificed a single member of any gang I¡¯ve ever been in to understand? Never! You never abandon your friends, you never turn your back on them, you never leave a woman behind,¡± her tone suddenly softened and she stroked Blood''s mask lightly ¡°You aren¡¯t alone, you don''t have to do this yourself and we won¡¯t let you remember what Bright told me? Back at the Crawlers warehouse... I won¡¯t let one of my friends die.¡±


    Next to me Skull coughed quietly, ¡°quite right,¡± she said her voice was nothing like normal; no longer smooth and cultured but raw and quiet. ¡°It would be terribly rude... we simply cannot allow it.¡±


    I didn''t speak... not at the time, I just shuffled forwards and balled up two handfuls of Bloods blouse in my hands then pressed my mask into her shoulder and sobbed and sobbed until I could force a handful of words out between my trembling teeth.


    ¡°I... couldn¡¯t... live... without... you.¡±


    Blood started trembling as well and reaching up pulled me to her even more tightly, after a second Aras huge grey arms flung around us as well and then after a muffled and quite obviously fake sigh Skull joined in as well.


    For a good minute we just stood there hugging and crying... look we may be badass warrior thieves and it may be annoyingly stereotypical but we are still just ordinary girls at the end of the day despite all the fighting and the magic. If you had just been hunted across the length of a city by a psychopathic mass murderer with the backing of his own private army, gone without food or sleep for hours of heavy exertion (the looted pastry doesn''t count) and had one of your friends offer to sacrifice herself to save you you¡¯d also agree that a crying session is just a necessity.


    After a few more ragged minutes the four of us parted and turning our backs fished under our masks to wipe away any clinging tears. Even with our composure returning I admit I still clung to Blood like a child to her mother, I had a handful of her shirt gripped between two fingers and I only let her go when we started moving again and even then I stayed close behind her. I know that sounds needy but she''s my best friend ok? And with what she had offered to do... I wanted to reassure myself that she was still there.


    The other two gave us an odd look[144] before we began to plan again. Skull spread a small map out on the crumb littered table before us and pointed.


    ¡°Ok ladies here''s the situation, we¡¯re being hunted by a veteran Inquisitor who can track Blood''s every move no matter how far she goes, this means that we cannot run and we cannot hide so we have only one option.¡±


    ¡°Fight.¡± Ara said grimly.


    Skull nodded and slipped back into her General persona, ¡°correct,¡± she said with a sharp nod (she was totally getting into it[145]), ¡°we are outnumbered and to be honest out classed therefore we need to be smart about this and so I recommend we ambush him... here.¡± Skull finger stabbed down on the map spearing a single small symbol.


    I leant forwards over the table and stared at the pictogram she was pointing at. I had never seen a symbol like it on any map of Prasus and remember I was a noble and given a noble¡¯s education so I really didn''t know what in the Abyss it was. It looked like a picture of a large flower winding around itself forming a sort of coin shape with the flower head in the centre and layers of stem looping around it in circles. I thought it looked very pretty.


    ¡°What in the world is that supposed to be?¡± Asked Blood her voice husky from crying.


    ¡°That my dear friend¡¯s is a church.¡± Skull said triumphantly, as you might imagine this news did not thrill us.


    ¡°Seriously that''s your plan we just traipse into a cathedral and.... What? Claim we¡¯re a group of nuns that just got back from a very aggressive fancy dress party?¡± Blood managed to sound scornful and superior even with a raw voice.


    Ara for her part sounded more amused than annoyed but there was definitely an annoyed edge. ¡°That''s absolutely the worst idea you¡¯ve ever had Skull.¡±


    ¡°I really don''t think it¡¯s the best idea,¡± I said, trying to soften the blow. ¡°I just mean I think that might get us into more trouble.¡±


    Skull sighed, ¡°do you really think I¡¯m that stupid?¡± she asked, then looking at us for a second she shook her head. ¡°Don''t answer that... anyway you didn''t listen properly I said it was a church, but not one to Koth, it¡¯s a church of the Green mother.¡±


    ¡°Who¡¯s that?¡± I asked baffled, I glanced across at the other who just shrugged then at Skull who preened slightly.


    ¡°You may not have heard of her,¡± she said magnanimously. ¡°But my family owns some of the oldest and least censored records in all of Prasus and I was of course allowed access during my school days. The Green mother is the precursor to Koth; she was the original goddess worshiped in early Prasus before the Arch-Doge rose to power as her High-Priest. After assuming total control of the church he changed its doctrine to that of Koth the Machine father and now essentially denies that the goddess ever existed. Most churches were repurposed for Koth but those that couldn''t were abandoned and cordoned off.¡±


    ¡°And this one couldn''t be?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Right it¡¯s a church with a massive internal garden and most of the walls made from living trees. It¡¯s impossible to disguise it as machinery so they just abandoned it to the elements and closed off the area to civilians. All in all plenty of cover far from enemy reinforcement and it has the obvious morale factor.¡±


    I wasn''t going to give her the satisfaction of answering her lead so I just nodded. ¡°Of course it does.¡± With the kind of poker face that only someone wearing a mask can have.


    After a second of me and Skull staring at each she sighed. ¡°I mean it¡¯s the church of the god worshiped before the Arch-Dodge made up his own clockwork abomination.¡± Skull sounded distinctly put upon.


    I felt a little shiver of fear run through me. Now none of us were what you can call true believers (or even untrue believers, we are full and total nonbelievers) but I wasn''t used to anyone actually saying they didn''t believe in Koth. The worship of the Church of the Divine Mechanisms was such an intrinsic part of Prasus that even with my own lack of faith (justifiable I feel because of the whole heretic mage execution thing) it still felt weird for someone to openly criticize him.


    Blood obviously felt no such thing and just nodded, ¡°yeah that''s a really good idea Skull....¡± looking around at us she took a deep breath and threw her shoulders back. ¡°I guess we¡¯re doing this then.


    ¡°Yup.¡± Aras bubbly jovial voice brought a smile to my lips; she sounded as unperturbed as if we¡¯d been planning on going shopping rather than fighting for our lives against a magic nullifying psychopath with his own private battalion.


    ¡°They can only track Blood,¡± added Skull. ¡°That means we can bait them in by presenting her as the only target then spring our ambush. Ladies we have terrain and strategy on our side, we can plan and prepare the Inquisitor, who can only react to our movements, cannot. We have a chance here, a chance to do some real good, a chance to strike a blow against the Arch-Doge but most importantly we have a chance to survive.¡±


    I was half expecting her to start waving a flag or to go on a diatribe about the nature of truth or beauty or patriotism, Skull can seem cold at times but she''s a really sweet girl when you get through her shell[146].


    Nodding and obviously deciding to underline the point, Blood drew her rapiers with a sound like a steel cutting silk, the two silver blades shimmering in the flickering candlelight. Her vulnerable side was gone and in its place was the laughing, dancing, burning hellion again.


    Ara wasn''t so ostentatious with her preparations she merely tugged at her jerkin of ropes and nodded at Skull.


    I favoured her with my sweetest smile (which I then immediately remembered that she couldn''t see) and brandished my mace in a way that I hoped made me seem strong and determined.


    Skull straightened up and nodded at us imperiously. As far as three teenage noblewomen and one ex-smuggler stood in the ruins of a partially looted restaurant, we looked distinctly battle hardened and determined. Together with my four friends and our magic I felt like I could take on the whole world and win... this effect was only slightly ruined by the sound of a door creaking open.


    ¡°Is someone there?¡± Called a soft young voice from the back of the restaurant.


    One of the others (certainly not me in any way) swore under her breath and then as the distant door opened slightly wider grabbed Blood and Ara by their shoulders and dragged them out of the restaurant.


    ¡°Uh... sorry about the food.¡± I called over my shoulder as we toppled out of the door, Skull scurried out after me and slammed it closed then all looking slightly shifty and very embarrassed we wandering into the night. Skull clutched her map and muttered whilst the rest of us tried desperately to keep on our aching legs.


    And so on a dark night in the season of frost a group of teenage thieves half collapsed with exhaustion poorly armed and barely trained decided to attempt to kill one of the most dangerous warriors in the whole world who was heavily armed, had significant backup and knew they were coming using a plan that they assembled in five seconds, a scratched up old map and a few stolen bread rolls. It was impulsive, idiotic and stupid and it is truly a miracle that any of us survived.

 Month of Frost - Interlude

    I fidgeted with my blank white mask in the fetid heat of the black barge. The holy braziers on the deck were pouring out hot smoke which drifted down through the half closed hatches turning the troop bay into an oven like purgatory and slicking my face with sweat. I stuck my fingers up under the edge of my mask and tried to use the entire thing as a makeshift fan for a few seconds but all I succeeded in doing was blasting my face with red hot air.


    Letting it drop from my sticky fingers back into position I leant back on the hard wooden pew and tried to ignore my discomfort. The stench of human bodies, incense, weapon oil and hot metal hung heavy in the still air as outside I could hear the repeated scraping of the barges clockwork motor blades glancing off the canals walls. Sometimes I thought that if there really was an Abyss then it would be waiting inside a black barge... Especially waiting to see if the violent madman you¡¯re working for has caught up with the people you¡¯re trying to keep away from him.


    Which is why I scowled (luckily it was hidden under my mask) when the door to the upper deck slammed open and Nightsbane swaggered down into the stinking boiling hold. Of course he wasn''t stuck down here with us that would never do. Instead he spent most of his time sitting pretty up on the bridge next to the Captain basking in the fresh cool night air only coming down to patronize us at regular intervals.


    Walking past the rows of bowing and scraping pyre-guardsmen he arrived at our corner of the hold and gestured for our attention.


    ¡°Ok class,¡± he said, with pretension and sarcasm dripping from his tone in equal amounts. ¡°A theoretical exercise whilst we wait, who can tell me the correct Inquisitorial capture procedure we should use in our current situation?¡±


    Valentine was about to answer as usual but for once Swain beat her to it.


    ¡°Oh I know Inquisitor,¡± he simpered like a tame hound. ¡°Capture procedure 81.4T?¡±


    ¡°Don''t be ridiculous,¡± snorted Valentine. ¡°We don''t have nearly enough Piranhas. It¡¯s got to be 67.33G, that''s the most appropriate one for dealing with 4 magically enabled targets in a populated area.¡±


    ¡°Valentine is correct in theory however on a practical test like the one you¡¯re having next month hint hint,¡± he actually said that out loud... What a prick. ¡°I would also accept 81.4T for the simple intimidation factor when dealing with any survivors, well done both of you.¡±


    I think they would have wagged their tails if they could have. I wanted to vomit... although that could be partially because of the choking smoke and the stench of sweat. As I thought that thought a tiny sound dragged me out of my stupor, the inquisitors Arcanum had begun to ring


    ¡°Ok it¡¯s time for another triangulation,¡± as he got up he turned back to us and beckoned. ¡°You should see this as well. Who knows you might learn something.¡± This last was said with cocksure arrogance that caused the others to laugh and me to once again feel the rise of yesterday¡¯s flat bread (the Inquisitions cloister-barracks are renowned for the quality of their education; less so for their meals). Honestly he was like a walking human grease stain.


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    Emerging up onto the deck I revelled in the ice cold night air. The barge was moving at quite some speed now, its clockwork motor burring away with a distinct rat-tat-tat, causing wind to slice across the deck and whip my robe into a frenzy of motion.


    I didn''t get to enjoy it for long of course. Nightsbane was already striding up the deck waving his arms at the nearby districts. ¡°When stalking such cunning prey as a mage the most important thing is to never become complacent, an Arcanum may be able to track them, the Art may be able to harm them and a blade kill them but they are cunning, powerful and ruthless creatures especially in packs.¡±


    ¡°Like the three we¡¯re after right Sir?¡± Asked Swain ever the teacher¡¯s pet.


    ¡°Quite right Swain,¡± replied Nightsbane, ever happy to be pandered to. ¡°Now for all we know they may have split up and scattered already and I do only have a lock on one of them. So just in case I want you to memorise all possible escape routes and hiding places you see as we cross this district in case we need to chase the remaining three down the old fashioned way.¡±


    The other initiates suitably distracted Nightsbane sat down on the armoured lip of the black barge and began to fiddle with the heavy device around his neck. Now I may have hated him but even I had to admit he was a true master of the Arcanum, which is why him having us watch was really just showing off. I knew we wouldn''t be allowed one of our own, even to train with, for at least two decades yet. But still he made sure all eyes were on him before he let his fingers dance across the ticksteel orb. Tapping here, caressing there, the ticking within the relic growing louder and louder as he deftly tuned it to an aether signature in its tape buffers. Even veteran inquisitors would have had trouble getting it aligned correctly in five minutes in less than two Nightsbane sat back with a smile and watched the orb intently.


    After a moment it pinged and a tiny hatch sprung open.


    It was honestly anticlimactic, Arcanum are hard to activate but when done successfully they just stick out a little glowy needle in the direction of the aether that they are tracking, no... Razzmatazz.


    Nightsbane looked out across the city and, as if responding to the whims of fate, the clouds above us parted and a beam of moonlight speared down upon a tall and ancient tower surrounded by ruined suburbs less than two districts away. Seeing it my heart skipped a beat it couldn''t be I thought staring in awe it just couldn''t be right?


    ¡°Pyre-Captain you are to take your men and return to your barracks, obey standard mission abortion protocols[147] and do not leave until a team from the Order administers a purity test to you and your squad.¡±


    The pyre-Captain ripped off a textbook salute, as crisp as folded laundry, before marching back into the depths of the barge. A few moments later the whine of the engine changed tone and we began to move backwards slowly.


    The Inquisitor turned to us with a critical gaze.


    ¡°We are going to continue our hunt alone, we will not need the guard for this final part and it is better they not be exposed to... dangerous knowledge.¡±


    The other three nodded believing no doubt that he was talking about magic about its manifest evil but I... I knew better and as I watched the tall spire of the distant church I felt a surge of hope.