Chaos Trims My Beard: A Fantasy Noir, page 30
My fist pumped as I sent three sets of knuckles at the pair of grays flanking Venrick. One tagged a suit in the neck while its brethren flew on to die against the magerock walls. The suit I'd hit crumpled to the ground, but Venrick remained held. Sweat dripped down my face as I ran and readied another barrage but I stumbled and fell with more bonds lashing at my feet. I struggled and writhed against the floor as the orc that Venrick hit earlier stood and moved towards the ratman with his axe raised.
He was still a few steps away when the fog rolled in. Gray talons, bladed and harsh, scraped off of the floor around my head. Bright colored gashes marked the dark planks where they had stepped. I smelled blood.
The bonds on my feet were gone and I scrambled to a crouch. My ears were dead in the gray. Venrick's guns might have been firing, or water might be slowly dripping from the walls from my coin's many bursts. The liquid sensation at the edge of reality had not abated and amidst the thick air it felt worse, and more encroaching. Something golden and blue shone through the fog, its form wavering, but emitting heat and light. I crawled towards it.
My hand touched something furry. I pulled it towards me and found Venrick unconscious. His jacket rose and fell with shallow breaths and his guns sat nearby, their barrels smoking. My arms felt slow and heavy as I gathered the ratman and his weapons. We moved away from the golden glare until I found a wooden wall. I set the ratman against the intricate carvings and rich bronze varnish and put his guns in his lap. When I turned back to the atrium I found the fog dissipated and the golden glare given over to orange.
Aglowe stood with Sunroot at his back. Both of their hands were aflame. A wispy, curved wall of gray was expanding to surround them. They shot fire into it and bladed claws struck back from varied, impossible angles. Both of the elves were bleeding from cuts on their arms and their robes were sliced and tattered. A claw darted from the fog and raked Aglowe across the chest. He collapsed as another attack came at him from the opposite side. Were he standing it would have taken him in the neck.
"Elara!" I yelled. My voice felt weak in my throat. Sunroot ducked a claw and met another with an arc of fire. The room had gotten humid and the fog was receding.
With a clap Sunroot sent a burst of fire out from her body. It washed over me and my beard smoked. I twisted to check on Venrick and saw that I'd shielded him from most of the blast. A spark had gotten into the blue feather on his cap. I crushed it with my fist. The watery aura around me felt weaker, smaller, but still lapped at my being. Sunroot stood over Aglowe with her fists still enflamed. A beast, a tempest of blades held together by glowing strands of dust stood opposite her. Between them rested a small, gray stone.
The atrium was littered with suited enforcers and cops, all bleeding. Some moaned and rolled. Others lay still. My knuckles burned in my hand.
"This, Sattler!" Sunroot yelled as she sent fire at the beast. "This is what we're trying to stop."
The storm creature reared back on its long thick legs and slashed forward with both arms. Sunroot stepped back from its reach but the thing's gray wrists dissolved and its many-clawed hands went flying for the elf's chest and throat. Her own fingers barely intercepted with a burst of flame.
"Stop?" I yelled. "You burned people! Killed them!" I sent knuckles at her.
She sidestepped my attack and sent a burst of fire my way with curses on her lips. I was tired. I was slow. It tagged me in the shoulder. But the thing that Elara had become took the opportunity I'd opened up and sent a long claw across Sunroot's back. The elf cried out and fell forward. Blood spread across her torso. She stared hard at me as Elara moved in for the kill. Her face wavered and shook in the air. I blinked hard.
"You don't understand. You can't." Her fingers now streaked with blood groped at her chest. She pulled a police badge from the folds of her clothes. It glowed white and orange in her grip. With a cry that was too deep for an elf, Vella Sunroot shoved the badge into her chest, and then lay silent.
The room grew very hot. All around me moans of pain turned into screams of terror. Every cop and enforcer, those moving and those not, was smoking and glowing on the ground. I didn't try to count them. I didn't have enough fingers.
Elara turned and stalked, her blades bristling and knife-slash eyes taking in the dozen or more emerging challengers. A dark red shape swooped in on Sunroot and disappeared behind a wall of smoke and fire.
I stayed crouched in front Venrick’s unconscious body and looked for the exit, any exit, but couldn't find one. Bloody bodies were rising, replaced by forms of fire. There was a hand on my shoulder. I expected it to burn. When I turned I found Dawnlight with Sunroot’s bloody body balanced against his shoulder. Aglowe was standing feebly behind the young elf, clutching at the other’s dark robes like a lifeline.
Dawnlight bent down to scoop up Venrick. When he stood, a New Sketlin Police Bureau badge lay in place of the ratman. It was well made, and still glowed hot. The tears that had earlier marked the young elf’s face had been replaced by ash. "Please, destroy this. And I'm sorry, my friend. Know that I will do save what I can, and I will remember you. Gods, Edwayn. They are gods and they must be stopped.”
A blast of cold air overtook me and a small tunnel ringed with frost opened in the fire. Dawnlight fled through it, dust pumping through his muscles as he dragged the elf and ratman in his arms with the viscount following. I tried to follow but the thin ice through which he'd fled steamed and died. I was surrounded. There were shapes, some vaguely human. Many were not. It was so hot. Something warm touched at my hand and I jerked it away. I dropped my knuckles to the floor. I had two options. Both felt like death.
My fingers found their way into my jacket, into the deep pockets, the dwarven pockets that I knew that my mother had sewn in. They closed around something hard and brass. A misshapen badge, a mark of authority to which I'd never aspired. I pressed the metal against my chest.
Muscles locked up. Skin grew tight. The receding water at the edge of my being disappeared, replaced by dirt and stone. Pressure and heat, but not the flashy kind that dies when left alone, no: real eternal heat pervaded my body.
I became ore. Virgin metal: unmined, unsorted, unshaped. Something rippled across my skin and bulged out, like ten-thousand years of dripped sediment in an instance. I embodied shards of stone in an infinite cave, and I rose up. There was strength within me, around me. The power of the shifting rocks and plates on which our world floated. The tiny, dwarven part of me that was surrounded now by rock screamed a word.
Stalag-might.
That insane, fleshy bit that remained of my humanity laughed at its own joke.
Something impacted my chest, but I only registered it as extant. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. I was stone. I would always be. More strikes, more minor gnats buzzing at my side. With great effort I moved my shoulder. With a twisting, grinding turn I sent a fiery bug across the room. There were many fiery things here.
I let my body work on the task of moving my legs. It was difficult for they were heavy. There was a small, bright object near one of my feet. Something told me it was wrong and must be crushed. My heel came down square, and the thing broke with a dull snap. Earth closed in on my mind and I felt myself go to another place.
I went up through the strata, my mind breaking away from where it always had been and finding another place, a deeper place, one full of dust. Large creatures with bodies of boulder and eyes of crevasse sat in this new place and intoned that spellsteel was fakery and magerock blasphemy. A deep part of me could do not but agree.
It was dark here, where my perception was. Too close in, too slow. The boulders took time from their conference to tell me that I could leave, to see the others, though I would be back. I belonged here. With their blessing I rose. I broke through crust and found myself in a new place, a place of flow.
It was cold here, and I stumbled. Serpents with many heads and fish with no fins but teeth giggled and nipped at my edges. They said they appreciated the work we did, and they hoped we liked the art they sculpted from our skin. The creatures jerked and fled through the murky dark and were replaced by women. They were things of beauty. It was not a beauty for me. One told me to check upon my body and I saw that I needed to move my arms. More fiery bugs went flying. These women made me nervous. I rose.
Up here was in the new place it was not as cold, but it was wrong. There was no substance. This place was made for swirling things with blades; they tried to move me and cut at me. A bit, a small fraction of a percent, was shorn from my form. And the voices. There were so many. I could not listen to a single word without being assaulted by the speech of thousands. I fled. As I left, I saw a girl in a dress and I thought that I knew her.
When I returned to the boulders they said that I had seen much but not all. One showed me how to descend and I did. Beneath there was fire. Everything was in flux. Multi-legged insects charged and spat heat only to change into wicked, winged things. I did not like it here. They could not hurt me, but everything was anger. A large figure came to sit next to me. He said that he was sorry, and that he didn't want to see me again. When I nodded he pointed to another place and I followed.
In an older fire I saw a pair, a man and a woman. One was holding a small door, a small conduit through which a creature of this hot place could travel and take a body for its own purpose. The door was imperfect and crude. Still, the man held it. He gestured at the other, the woman. She shook her head violently. A thing that lived in this place went through the door and took him.
The woman ran and grabbed a small bundle shaded from sight. Something bright and blue ripped from the shade and thrown at the first, now fully consumed. He flared. There was white. Both the man and woman were gone. The shade remained. Somewhere, where my body was, my chin hurt in an old place. I fled.
The boulders waved as I passed and I was returned.
In front of me, Elara—the beast that had consumed her—was twirling and ripping at both fire and stone with its blades. A shape of flame charged at her and she disappeared, only to reform behind it and stab at its back.
More fire came at me and I repelled them with slow, easy strikes. They crashed against the wood and the rock and reformed to attack again. Some crawled upon my head and others beat upon my back. I could fight forever: their blows did not hurt and I did not tire. Elara could wear me down, perhaps, but it would take years. Centuries. A fire clawed at my hand and I threw it into a wall of magerock. Blasphemous stone.
It hit with a snap and the wall flashed blue. When the fire stood again, he was smaller and darker. In my slow way I formed an idea. As I walked towards the wall I felt the battle rage around me. Elara flowed over and through me as fire after fire crashed into my chest and legs. One ended up underfoot and I crushed it only for it to snap back in shape when I moved away.
When I reached the wall I left my body to go ask the boulders if what I was going to do was wise. They said that the rock in front of me was not real, but then again, neither was I, and it would probably be okay. With their blessing I punched the wall. I punched it many times.
As it shattered under my fists, it became my fists. Bits of sparking blue rock fell and were made to circle and stick. Magerock gravel covered my hands and then my arms. It armored my chest and lifted my feet. But most of it went to my fists. When the wall was gone, I went for its brother.
It crumbled easily for now my fists were large. When I was finished, I turned towards the fires and the air and found that they were small. I reached for a fire and it raged at me, spitting its heat at my face. It died in my grip. I swung and three more became ash. They did not know to flee. The fight was short.
At the end, I stood with ash between my fingers and charcoal under my feet. The air stood against me. Elara knew to flee though she did not want to. And I did not want to kill her. A small bit of her, an essential bit, her core, her focus, sat on the floor between us. She lunged for it but I was larger. I kicked at the piece and it sailed through the opening where the walls had been. She followed it and was gone.
When I turned I found a small creature, a window through which bits of air, earth, water, and fire could travel and be directed. This window was shaped like an elf, and it stood before me. He had something black, something anti in his hand. The thing he held was small, the size of a pill. I recognized it as something I'd been given, something that burned my skin and lived in my pocket, back when I had pockets.
I looked down at my hands and saw that they were made of the same blackness. The void of my hands and the pill pulled on the powers of this place, and the other places I had been. In my deep heart of stone, there was sadness at what I had done to the fires.
"Edwayn, you have done the impossible. Truly. Remarkably. Historically. You have validated my lifetimes of work. I thank you." Dawnlight's voice was weak in my head. I did not hear him well for there was much stone between us. "Now my friend, let me help you, as you have helped me. I will see you on the other side, Mr. Sattler. We shall drink to this, one day."
I tried to speak and the elf held up his concentrated bit of void, his pill of magerock. Then he ate it.
The part of me that was not stone began to fall into blackness while the ore and the magerock crumbled from my body. In the end, I was glad that someone had finally swallowed that damn thing, for I was tired of carrying it.
32
I woke up in the hospital. My head hurt like all the dwarven forge-patrons had forgotten their anvils and settled upon me. Both of my arms were in full casts, the white plaster wrapped around my skin shot with veins of blue.
"What. . ." I moaned.
"This one is glad you have woken." With a scraping of claws Venrick climbed to sit next to me on the blue hospital sheets.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Much," the ratman said.
I groaned and looked around the room. It was big, and well lit. There were many flowers and cards scattered about. Most had been opened. "This one couldn't resist. He likes reading letters, especially if they might mention this one in admiration."
"What?" I said again.
"This one likes reading. . . " he started.
"No, not that." I lifted my hand to sweep the room. The movement hurt. "What is all this?"
"Edwayn prevented a great loss of life." The ratman sat and his face was sincere. I saw he wasn’t wearing his jacket or guns, just a simple green vest instead. The blue feather still stood tall in his hat. "It was a new thing Edwayn did. A strange thing, but effective. This one is sorry to have missed it."
"Elara," I said.
"Gone. No one has seen her. Does not surprise this one. Aglowe has spoken heavily against her. Not as though this one could arrest her. Hard to hold. No containers."
My laugh was forced and hurt my chest. "Sunroot?" I asked
"Dead," Venrick said. "Injuries sustained during the mass-overrun."
I remembered the blood spreading over her back. "What about the viscount? And the other one, Dawnlight?" I asked
Venrick pointed at a wall. "Viscount Aglowe is recovering under guard from the New Sketlin Police Bureau."
"Ha." Laughing still hurt. "Dawnlight?"
"Learning to use magic again."
"What?" I tried to think back to what had happened after the elf had fled with Sunroot, Aglowe, and Venrick in tow. Nothing came easily and I felt like there was a great sense of revelation hidden in the blank spot.
"This one will retrieve him," Venrick said and left the room. He returned with Dawnlight. The elf's head had been shaved and he wore the light green robe of a hospital patient. I'd never seen him look so relatable.
"Hello, Edwayn," he said.
"Dawnlight. What happened?" I asked.
His eyes grew bright but they did not light up. "You did it Edwayn. You touched the planes, you became one and then you came back. It is a true shame that the artifact was consumed in the process, but you went full overrun and subsequently enjoyed a near complete reversion! Very little persistence of experience. How are you, how are your faculties?"
I shook my head and looked around the room bewildered. Outside of the window I saw the shining tops of some of New Sketlin's towers. I stared at them and counted hopters for a bit before turning back to the elf and the ratman. "You're going to have to talk slower. And make more sense. My faculties are fine. I'm less impressed with my body." I lifted an arm up and found that I couldn't even flex my fingers.
Dawnlight nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, I’m sure such casts aren’t terribly comfortable, but they are necessary to ensure your reversion is maintained. Rest assured, they do not represent a permanent fixture. Also, unfortunately for me but possibly some small recompense for you, the artifact's maker must also suffer for full induction reversion to be triggered. Alas! Such is progress!"
I rolled my eyes and looked at the rat. The motion hurt my neck. "Explain."
"This one has gathered that Dawnlight was the one who created the object Edwayn used to induce earth upon himself. It was as such that when Dawnlight ingested the dampening pill that Edwayn has been carrying with him any lingering effects of Dawnlight's dust pulls were cut off, and his works undone."
The elf continued nodding. "Yes, yes! It's so simple. Indeed, the second story of my home disappeared the instant I did it and many of my things are now destroyed, but progress friend dwarf! Progress, research!"
My eyes ran over the elf. Apparently I was in his debt. I tried to conjure up an acknowledgement that would shut him up. "Thank you, Dawnlight. I should have listened to you from the first," I said.
His exclamation was profound. "No, no! Haven't you heard what I've said? There is so much more that we have done. . . "
I shut my ears and pretended to be asleep and then actually fell asleep. When I woke up Venrick was next to me on the bed again. After blinking a few times I asked him if he'd brought a stick and stones. He motioned to my cast and said it wouldn't be fair. A nurse brought lunch and I ate it through a straw. When I'd finished I turned to the ratman again. "So, Aglowe got arrested. Why?"
