“Dawnward south!” was all Marra got out before it was too late.
The demon crossed the distance from the bushes it had crashed through, to the assembled officers, in the time it took the assembled officers to draw their weapons. It didn’t speak, or cackle, or make any of the sounds it had to taunt Ana as it chased her. But its eyes were locked on her, and they burned with a cruel delight that promised merciless, painful death.
Its armor had holes and rents in it, and its right arm ended in a charred stump at the elbow, just like Kaira had said, but that didn’t seem to bother the demon any. And it moved with a swiftness and grace that made Ana question whether she’d actually ever injured it; if her stabbing it in the hip had all been some hallucination conjured by a mind exhausted beyond what the human body could possibly endure.
Talleh had reacted with a swiftness born of experience, and which must have been enhanced by some Enhancement or Perk. In a split second he caused a hedge of spikes to rise from the ground before the demon; it vaulted them without breaking stride. Halmer, who’d been on his feet as soon as Marra alerted them, took a wild swing at its head; it ducked under the attack with impossible ease, shouldering the Hammerer aside without slowing and sending him flying several feet to the side. Then it was inside the circle of logs, and Tellak met it. Her weapon, which she could shift between different forms using a Shaping from the Craft of Metal, took the form of a shield. She put her shoulder behind it, trying to ram the demon and knock it down, but the demon leapt clear over her, its one good hand clamping down on her ink-black hair as it passed above her. It shoved off hard enough to snap Tellak’s head forward, launching itself at Ana while Tellak was thrown to the ground, her face smashing into the upper edge of the shield as it caught in the earth.
Ana’s bonuses activated around then, with the monster fifteen feet away. She was already struggling unsteadily to her feet, unarmed and unarmored but determined to fight this damn thing with all that she had. The surge of her bonuses and her Perks activating made her feel like she might actually not die in the first second, and gave her the push she needed to rise and get her guard up.
It wasn’t enough. Against any human she would have won effortlessly, but at the speed the demon moved Ana was too worn down. Her reactions were a hair too slow, her movements just a fraction too sluggish to keep up when the monster hit the ground just in front of her, and instead of going straight for her, dug in its feet and pushed off sideways.
Ana wasn’t too slow to track it as it moved, even if her body didn’t respond fast enough to stop it. All she could do was to watch as it avoided her entirely, and headed right for Touanne, a few feet away. Touanne, who was still frozen in shock and terror and just beginning to scream. Touanne, who couldn’t have fought it under any circumstances.
The demon was on her in an instant. Its one arm drove forward, a straight punch with all of its demonic strength behind it.
The scream that had just erupted from Touanne’s mouth was cut short as the blow took the Healer in the throat. It struck with enough force to knock her up and back through the air, and she ragdolled onto the ground, not even attempting to soften her landing among the low shrubs and pine needles. As if that wasn’t enough the demon followed, stomping down so hard on her chest as it leapt forward that she bounced slightly into the air.
Then it showed the intelligence that, together with its strength, made it so dangerous. The demon didn’t stop to savor its kill. It didn’t turn back to fight the officers, or the people converging on them from all over the camp. Instead, the moment it touched the ground it turned sharply away from the camp. It dodged with preternatural awareness under the first chunk of rock that came flying at it, but the second caught it as it leapt over a vast patch of mirror-smooth ice, sending it tumbling and crashing through the undergrowth. That barely slowed it; it recovered almost instantly and was gone, vanishing back among the trees.
The whole mess couldn’t have taken more than five seconds.
Pandemonium erupted. Halmer and Tellak, both groaning in pain, had only just started to pick themselves off the ground. Most of the armed officers still on their feet scrambled to set up a defensive line in case the demon attacked again. Pirta and Drisa were both running for Touanne with cries of dismay. And unnoticed among it all, Ana clutched her throat and sank wheezing to her knees.
Unnoticed, except by the Earthbreaker Haytham Talleh.
When she saw the elfin man striding her way, her first instinct was to fight. She forced herself to her feet, but with her bonuses gone and her throat collapsed and swollen shut it was hard. Staying upright once she’d managed it was no easier, and the guard she got into, while serviceable, was wide and swaying, well below her normal standard. It came as almost as much of a relief as a surprise when Talleh slowed, palms forward.
“Peace, Miss Cole. Peace,” the Earthbreaker said. He kept coming, but slowly, and with a smooth movement he removed a small vial from a pouch on his belt. “I wish only to help. You’re finding it difficult to breathe, are you not?”
He knew. He damn well knew that she was. He’d seen what happened, and he’d understood what it meant. The punch, the stomp; Ana’s throat felt broken in a way that you simply didn’t survive without medical help.
Her chest wasn’t even part of it. But the bastard demon had stomped Touanne—and thus Ana—right on the goddamn tit, and it hurt like a motherfucker without Fight Through to take the edge off.
That wasn’t the point. He’d seen Ana get hurt when Touanne did. If he hadn’t known from before that Ana could absorb the injuries of others, if Summerland hadn’t known and told him, then he damn well knew now. He knew that if he wanted to get to Ana, he could go after the easier targets around her.
Very briefly, she wondered how well protected he was. He’d stopped so that she could reach out and take the vial from his outstretched hand. Could she kill him before he could retaliate? It might be worth it, truce or no damn truce.
Then she touched his aura, and either he was a consummate liar, or he honestly meant no harm. Between her own experience reading people, her Sense Motive Skill, her near supernatural ability to read body language through Kinesics, and her ability to pick up on both emotions and intentions through people’s auras thanks to Auratic Empathy, Ana sensed fear, irritation, frustration, a mild distaste, and curiosity bordering on suspicion, but no overt hostility. At least none directed her way.
As if to emphasize his desire to help, Talleh wiggled the vial, making its softly shimmering contents dance and swirl.
Ana made a split second decision. Touanne was still down and out, not hurt but in shock. It might be a while before she could help. And though Ana’s Vitality was high, she could only survive without air for so long, even if she stayed in range of the healing magic that radiated from her unconscious friend at all times. She reached out and took the vial, uncorking it with her teeth.
There was still the possibility that the vial contained poison. If it did, Talleh was about to have another serious surprise.
“You’ll want to breathe in as hard as you possibly can as you pour it in your mouth,” Talleh said as Ana put the little glass bottle to her lips. “It’s terribly uncomfortable. You’ll want to press your mouth and nose closed afterward to prevent coughing it out. But with injuries to the throat and lungs, there is nothing more effective save a Healer’s touch.”
Ana hesitated. For a short, mad moment she wondered if the man’s play was to try to drown her. Then she realized just how crazy that idea was, considering that there was at most three ounces of liquid in the vial.
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Maintaining the kind of eye contact that said, If this kills me, I’ll find a way to take you with me, Ana poured the contents of the little bottle into her mouth. It tasted different from Touanne’s potions; slightly more bitter, with a sort of anis or liquorice taste to it. Then, against every instinct, she breathed in as hard as she could.
Her strength overcame the swelling. A trickle of air whistled into her lungs, and with it went a little of the liquid. Ana clamped her mouth and nose shut with one hand as her chest convulsed, trying to force the liquid back out as it burned its way down her trachea and into her lungs. She dropped to her knees; it was that or fall as she shook from fighting her own super-powered muscles as they tried to rid her body of the very thing that would hopefully let her draw something resembling a breath.
All the while, she never took her eyes off Talleh for longer than it took for a spasm to pass. And after a mercifully short amount of time those spasms were far enough apart that she risked attempting another breath, and another dose of potion into her airway. There wasn’t much left in her mouth; she’d swallowed some, and some had been forced out through her lips or nose despite her best efforts. But that second attempt at a breath was noticeably easier. More air than liquid flowed into her lungs, only to immediately explode back out as a powerful cough caught her by surprise. The third attempt was no worse than during a bad cold. The fourth was almost normal, and at that point Ana started taking full breaths, drawn out breaths and focusing on things other than her own situation and the extremely dangerous man watching her from less than four feet away.
There were at least three dozen more people in the small glade than there had been before the demon attacked, some of which looked acutely embarrassed. Those would be the ones who’d allowed the demon to slip past them. More stood in a perimeter that circled an area covering the glade and the nearby hospital area; after a second look, Ana was pretty sure that almost everyone was there. That was good. They wouldn’t want anyone to be separated from the rest.
Her own Party were among the last to arrive, with Messy going straight to Ana’s side. Jisha went to Touanne’s with a pained cry of “Anette!”, and the others formed a nervous screen between Ana and the Earthbreaker.
Deni’s voice was tremulous, her aura vibrating with hot anger and cold fear as she asked, “What in all the hells happened here?” Ana couldn’t see her face, but from the way she stood she was addressing Talleh.
“The demon attacked,” Talleh said evenly. “As I’m sure you could guess from the chaos.”
“What happened to Ana and Mistress Touanne,” Deni clarified, her voice so tight that she could barely speak. The anger in her aura flared, and the mana around them began to surge toward the young Evoker as though she was about to do something incredibly, suicidally rash.
“Deni, stand down!” Ana managed to croak. Despite the potion, her throat felt like she’d been gargling broken glass. “It’s alright. Demon got us. Talleh gave me a potion, that's all.”
“Thank you, Miss Cole,” Talleh said. Then his tone turned hard and cold. “Young Miss… Deni, was it? Let me be clear. Me and mine are currently under contract with your guild. As long as that is true, you have nothing to fear from us. But that contract does not preclude us defending ourselves with any force necessary, and considering what I just saw, I suspect it would take quite a lot of force to stop you. Enough that Miss Cole here might not survive it. And—” he raised his voice as Deni began to sputter an indignant reply, “I believe that we are all in agreement that a live and unharmed Miss Cole is instrumental to our chances of defeating this demon, and thus to our survival. So please, do not force me to do something none of us want. Peace?”
There was a tense, drawn out moment, and then the air seemed to go out of Deni. She looked over her shoulder at Ana and asked, “Did he really give you a potion?”
“Yeah,” Ana said hoarsely, gesturing with the empty vial.
Deni turned back to face the Earthbreaker. “Then, uh… sorry, Mister Talleh.”
“Apology accepted,” Talleh replied, his tone thawing somewhat. “A piece of advice, young Evoker. There are two kinds of Fire-mages. There are those who learn to keep their tempers in check. They tend to become very successful as both Delvers and war-mages. Then there are those who die young. I suggest you strive to belong to the first group.”
With that, Talleh turned smartly and strode away to join Captain Falk.
Deni and the others turned to face Ana. Deni’s face was hot pink with embarrassment. “What about if you’re a Fire- and Lightning-mage?” she asked quietly.
“Then you had best double up on the control,” Messy said before turning her face toward Ana. “So what did happen here?”
“I was too slow,” Ana admitted. “The demon came for me, then changed direction faster than I could follow. It got Touanne in the throat hard enough to throw her a couple of feet back, then stomped her in the chest for good measure. She… God, I swear I felt my neck try to snap, and my heart try to burst. She’d be dead twice if I hadn’t invited her to the Party.”
“She’s coming to,” Tellak said from Touanne’s side. “It doesn’t look like she’s hurt, just shocked.”
Ana had no idea when the Bulwark might have joined Drisa and Pirta. Tellak had a nasty cut across her nose and extending to her left cheekbone from where they’d hit her shield, and her normally pale face was a mask of smeared blood from there on down.
“Can she heal?” Ana asked. “That looks like it hurts.”
Tellak nodded confidently. “She can heal in her sleep. Literally, these days. And it does hurt more than I’d care to admit. But I think I will ask Jisha to look at my nose, and leave Touanne to you and Halmer. Jisha needs the practice.”
Tellak made no mention of why Ana might need a Healer. It was clear enough to anyone who knew her. As for Halmer, he was on his feet with his hammer in hand, but was holding his side where the demon had tackled him and slumping in a way that suggested some injured ribs. Ana, meanwhile, could breathe well enough now. “Ask her to take a look at Halmer first,” she said, and Tellak nodded before returning to the prone Healer and the three women tending to her.
Not much later they continued the meeting from where they’d been so violently interrupted. They still had to decide what to do, after all. The only difference was that any pretence of privacy had been abandoned; they moved the meeting to the field hospital, and all the patrols were pulled back to guard the perimeter of the camp.
“I expect I’m not the only one who saw the demon go straight for Miss Cole,” Pirta said grimly. There were nods and muttered agreement around the circle. “It likely could have killed Mister Halmer or Miss Tellak. It chose not to. Then at the last moment it turned away, and chose to target Mistress Touanne instead. Any thoughts on why that might be?”
“Cruelty,” Halmer suggested. Now that a terribly embarrassed Touanne had seen to him he was much better… at least physically. The ease with which the demon had passed him, seemingly not even deeming him worth killing, had the normally cheerful young man in a dour mood. “Ana, Rill loved you. Both for being the Wayfarer’s Chosen, and for just being you. If he’s still trapped in there, the demon might be trying to make him suffer for the sake of it.”
“That, or whatever admiration Rill had for Ana has been twisted into an obsession with hurting her,” Touanne suggested somberly. “That… it might be why it chose me. Not only am I a powerful mage and our only Healer, but I am, I hope, your friend, Ana. Seeing me die—failing to protect me—I imagine it thought that would be incredibly painful for you.”
Ana nodded her confirmation rather than speaking. She hadn’t let Touanne look at her yet in favor of getting the meeting over with, and her throat still hurt. Losing Touanne would be painful. Not for the reasons it would hurt most people, of course; the blow to her pride would be almost as important as the loss of an important ally, and someone whose company Ana enjoyed. But it would hurt, and anyone who knew her would be fully aware of that.
“It could also be that the demon is focused on her for other reasons,” Tellak said. “Either because it chased her for two full days and failed… or because of some sort of interference.”
Nobody responded to that. They all knew what she meant. But the idea of a deity somehow intervening to place a possessed sapient in a Splinter specifically to kill someone… it was too terrifying to voice. Bad enough that the demon was there, and had killed nearly a dozen of their own already; that it might be by divine plan rather than misfortune was more than anyone cared to talk about.
Pirta broke the silence that followed by clearing her voice “Whichever the reason,” she said slowly, “it sounds like we’re all in agreement that the demon primarily wants Ana. And that, unfortunately, gives me an idea.”
Ana looked at her, already sure where this was going and not liking it one bit. But she knew that she wouldn’t say no; she’d had the same idea herself, after all. Still, she needed to hear it. “What?” she croaked.
“Miss Cole. Ana. How do you feel about playing bait?”
and read 8 chapters ahead of both Splinter Angel and Draka! You also get to read anything else I’m trying out — which is how Splinter Angel got started.
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