Chapter 4
Gregory Palnick Has Gone Missing
Maggie stared into her reflection, coming off her dark morning tea. Her hair was frazzled, unmanaged but the will to care escaped her at the moment. This was her fifth cup she had ordered from a tea stand across the way of Over The Edge. She hadn't been able to sleep the night before yet again. Instead she had just stared restlessly at that damn lantern, as it swayed with every movement of the house, creaking, taunting her. She made a silent oath to herself that the night she left she would tear that hunk of metal from the rafters and toss it to the mountains below.
No, that was too good for it. She would have to devise a way to draw this out. That was the only solution. This hellspawn of glass and steel would have to feel the wrath of an angry Ypfhar, her oath of vengeance must be paid in oil and shattered glass.
Maggie jostled herself awake again. The tea wasn't working. She needed sleep. She slapped herself, and then chugged her tea which had become cold.
"You look like shit." Came Star, as he sat beside her, nodding to Da'La as she leaned against the bar vigilantly watching the street.
"Well, you look like… like a duster wrapped…" Maggie stared at Star, and his sudden identical twin brother who sat in the air beside him.
"It'll come to you; I'll wait." Star ordered a coffee.
"You're early." Maggie said.
"It's half to noon," Star returned, "I went out and grabbed supplies for our trip. We should be finishing the last job today." Star said.
"Oh, half to noon, good to know I've been here for… for…" Maggie spoke in a daze.
"Four hours." Da'La said, not taking her eyes off of the foot traffic.
"Four hours!?" Maggie turned to her Dek'Har, she groaned and held her head.
"Well, luckily soon you'll be sleeping in your Pfharplace." Star said, priming a cigarillo, and reaching in his pocket for an envelope. "Our final job. A scribe for a local Wizard con-- HEY OI!" Star clapped as Maggie sprung awake.
"I wasn't sleeping, you're sleeping!" Maggie yelled.
"Luckily, I thought ahead." Star reached into his pocket and produced a small decanter with a glass cork, inside which swirled a light blue liquid, that seemed to have a thick pigment suspended in it, that swirled in opposite movement as the liquid. When star set it down, it gave a static shock to the counter.
"I'm not taking drugs." Maggie warned.
"It's no more a drug than that tea you're chugging." Star said, while inserting his coffee cup through the curtain of tentacles. "It's a potion I bought from the shop down the road. It's called 'False Rest.' Foundry workers use it when they have a double shift. It delays the feeling of lethargy for 8 hours, but you'll crash once it wears off."
Maggie picked up the decanter and swirled it, it let off another static shock contained in the bottle.
"I'm going to need you today. You've been handy the last few days, but you'd be useless falling asleep the entire time." Star said, as he lit his cigarillo.
Maggie sighed; she was too tired to protest. She uncorked the bottle and gave it a smell. It smelled strongly of cinnamon and fresh ground coffee. She tipped it back and was amazed to find it didn't really have a taste but went down like a thousand small static shocks that tickled her throat on the way down. She coughed violently.
Da'La turned quick, "Ma Soeur!" Da'La rested her hand on Maggie's back. "Are you alright?" She asked quickly.
"I feel…" Maggie said, catching her breath. She leaped from her chair, "great! I could run a mile! Come on Star, let's go see why these Wizards are fighting!"
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Xanado Blvd was a long cobble street, which on either side sat blocks of townhouses, constructed together so that they each resembled solid masses stretching the length of the street, each with a slanted tile roof, and a stone chimney; so that, when looked on from the side, they looked like the teeth of a saw. Every house had a small yard, maybe 6 feet to the curb, that was fenced in by a concrete and steel fence, and at the corner of every other house, a streetlamp covered in magic filigree, which was dull at this time of day, stood orderly down the line of the street.
This street was mostly empty, save for a few people tending to their yards, or sitting on benches, or an errant carriage making its way down the road. The group walked down the mostly empty street… well, Star and Da'La walked, Maggie, full of magic energy, jogged at pace.
"Gregory Palnick was a pencil pusher and bookkeeper for a local wizard conglomerate. Up until about a week ago, he had been living here for nearly 20 years." Star said, a cigarillo hanging from his mouth from the stem. "About three months ago, Greg's wife, Melina, packed her bags and left with little notice. Apparently their 23-year marriage had been falling apart. His work contacted the graveyard five days ago that Palnick hadn't shown into work for a few days."
"Does anyone else feel great?" Maggie said, feeling the surge of the midday. "Blue sky, temperature is just right--"
"A man is missing, Maggie, stay focused." Star said, sharply.
"Well, maybe she can tell us something." Maggie pointed to a middle-aged woman, tending a small garden within her wall, in which she pruned rows of delicate pastille flowers, which bloomed in petal arcs. She was plump, with saggy cheeks and bright grey eyes. Her curly hair, which was brown but had shown some greying, was pulled back into a rough knot. She wore a floral dress, which was covered by a garden smock, and elbow long thick gloves, that were currently caked in dirt.
Star approached the lady, pulling his Sheriff's badge from his front pocket, "Ma'am?" The lady looked up from her garden. "Constable Star, Graveyard, these are my associates Da'La, and my energetic friend is Margaret. Can I get your name, Ms."
"Mrs. Fenwik, Flora Finwik. False Rest potion, that is." The lady had a mousey voice, with a thick reyilian accent that made her s's shush. "Careful with that, it's s'posed ta be 'abit formin'."
"Oh Merne, am I going to die?" Maggie stopped, a worried look shocked onto her face.
"We're here to ask you about your neighbor, Mr. Palnick." Star pressed forward. Maggie meanwhile pressed her fingers against her neck.
"Oh, sad story, that is." Mrs. Fenwik set her spade in a pocket of her smock. "'im and his wife, Melina I believe it were, moved in 20 years ago, still in the glow of their marriage. But then it all fell apart. Were tellin' my Henry, I were, that some people just lose the spark after a while, and he should be thankful he has me." She smiled.
"Is my heart supposed to be beating this fast?" Maggie said, panicked, "Da'La, check my pulse."
"When was the last time you saw Mr. Palnick?" Star continued.
"'ould 'ave to be last week to the day tonight, it was. He gotten into a screamin' match with Mr. Carveduster, what who lives next door." Mrs. Fenwik went on. "Didn't quite catch it myself, it was my Henry who caught the fight, it was. My Henry isn't one for Gossip… Is she going to be ok?"
Maggie at the moment sat in the street, breathing heavily, a panicked look setting in her face.
"She'll be fine, the potion doesn't hurt a person on one dosage." He said, eyeing his companion.
"I might be having a reaction; magic is a wild force people barely tame Star. You never know about these things." Maggie came back.
Mrs. Fenwik leaned in conspiratorially, "You didn't 'ere it from me, but 'eard that Mrs. Palnick and Mr. Carveduster were 'avin a bit of a scandalous tête-à-tête while Mr. Palnick were ate work."
"Heh," Star wrote in his notebook, closed it, and put it away. "Thank you, Mrs. Fenwik, you've been very helpful."
"I think I taste copper," said Maggie, "that's not good, right?"
"Oh, would you stop?" Star snapped.
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After taking a moment, or five, to convince Maggie she in fact wasn't going to keel over for a heart attack, the group went across the street and down the road a little bit. Carveduster's home was a light salmon color, with redwood stained door, and a brass handle that sat notably lower than most others. His yard and house, besides being well tended, was notably spartan, with only a simple chair under the filigree covered porch light. Star rapped on the door quick and waited. After a full minute, he heard the door's bolt unlock, and it pulled open.
Standing in the doorway was a short Nyrian man, maybe 4 foot total in height, with a bridged brow, and brown to black quill-like hair, and piercing crimson eyes. He wore thick boots, and grey trousers with a while button up, the top two buttons unlatched, and the sleeves rolled up, revealing the thick bristle of quills on his forearm. "I don't take solicitors." The man said, his voice was direct, practical, and gave an air of a man who didn't enjoy small talk.
Star flashed his badge, "Mr. Carveduster? Constable Star, Graveyard. These are my associates Margaret and Da'La." He said. "We want to talk to you about Palnick."
"Alright, I have a shift in a few hours, so I have time." Carveduster said, plainly.
"Where do you work?" Maggie asked.
He turned to Maggie, "The Foundry."
"Anyone else live with you?" Star asked.
He turned his head to Star, and sternly answered, "No."
"How long have you known the Palnicks?" Came Maggie.
"Since I moved in, round ten years ago."
"When was the last time you saw Gregory Palnick?" Star began to sense for his emotions.
"A week ago." Carveduster answers, near as Star could tell truthfully, "He came out demanding some sort of retribution. Saying that I ought to write to my family while I still can. He was drunk and had a hard time at it. I let it pass."
"Sure, you didn't let it pass because of your extra time with his wife?" Maggie accused.
Carveduster let out a sigh of contempt, "Yeah, I slept with his wife. Quite a few times actually." He said plainly, matter of factly as if he was confessing to fixing a slightly bitter afternoon tea.
"Pretty non plussed about breaking up your friend’s marriage." Maggie spoke.
"That marriage was broken far before I got to it." Carveduster said. "And I only knew them for ten years, I'd hardly call that a friendship."
"Hardly call ten years, a friendship?" Da'La asked, looking puzzled.
"I'm 236 years old, and only middle aged. 10 years is just starting to get to know someone when you live a life as long as I do." Carveduster explained.
"Are you sure that was the last you saw of him?" Star returned to the subject at hand.
"Yeah. I'd been watching too. He never left his house since he stormed back in, not while I was home anyway. I didn't take him seriously, but I've been stabbed by people in that state, so I figured best to keep an eye out." Carveduster said, evenly.
"Can't imagine why…" Maggie muttered.
"Oh," Carveduster reached into the inside of his door. "Melina had given me a key, so that I could come visit her during the days," he pulled a key from inside his house, and handed it to Star. "Might help."
"Thank you, Mr. Carveduster." Star took the key and pocketed it.
"No problem hope he didn't do something stupid. Have a good day." Carveduster said and closed his door.
Maggie bit her tongue.
Maggie turned to the gate and began to walk along the wall of the yard. "Can you believe that guy? Tears up a marriage, says the people he knew for ten years didn't matter to him, then has the cheek to," Maggie waved her hands in a mocking way, "hope he's ok."
"I think you're missing two people in this equation, Mags." Star hopped the fence between Carvedusters, and Palnicks house. Palnicks house was white, with a hint of yellow. He had a lattice, which overgrown by a gnarled vine, and a swinging bench along the wall. His window, which was large, was curtained on the inside, and the second story windows had jutted decorative steel bars sticking from them, his door was a soft red, with a brass knocker. "People are shitty to each other, way of the world." Star continued.
"That's myopic. People are generally good. They just… get in bad situations." Maggie said, looping around to the gate in front of Palnick's.
"People are generally shitty. They get in situations that reveal who they are the entire time." Star approached the door.
"Oh, come on. How do you explain communities, then? Sacrifice? Heroics?" Maggie pressed, approaching behind Star.
"Vainglory." Star Answered, as he pulled the key from his pocket. "What about you, Da'La? People shitty or good?"
Da'La looked at Maggie for a second, as she stood at the gate. "People are… people." Da'La answered.
Star unlocked the door, "I get it, tell me when the boss isn't around…" Star opened the door to the Palnick residence. The smell of trash was the first thing that waved through the door. The ground was covered in it. Peels, half eaten plates, discarded teacups that had begun to grow entire sophisticated civilizations. On the right side of the room was the only place left pretty clear, was a small reading nook, with a corner bookcase, set next to a hearth, and a red cushioned sitting chain, which was stained by some unknown substance, and a matching footrest. Next to it was a small table, with a handful of books piled on it. Toward the middle of the room was a hallway, with a door on the left, next to a set of stairs, and what looked like the remnants of a kitchen.
The group walked in, "Seems he didn't bother to tidy up before he left…" Star said, reaching on the inside of the door. He felt for a glyph carved in the wall, when the indentations of the carved wood brushed against his hand, he concentrated, and yellow light filled the glyph and charged a set of filigree, that climbed up the wall and danced among a network of filigree and glyphs on the ceiling and the room lit up. This did not improve matters, as mice scattered for hiding spots. "Alright, look around."
Da'La began down the hall, Star moved over to a small writing desk over to the left side of the room, and Maggie walked toward the nook. Da'La was the first to call out, "Zis door is locked." Da'La said.
"Probably a stash of some sort," Came Star, as he sifted through papers.
Da'La knelt before the door, "It's a pretty good lock, may be taking me a moment." She said as she pulled her tools from her canvas roll.
Maggie picked up one of the books from the table, a small leather-bound journal, not published. She opened it… it was a diary. Melina's. Son of a bitch was reading her diary, Maggie thought.
"Hey, look," Star said, approaching with a piece of paper, "recognize the name?" He held up what looked like a handwritten credit note: 20 Kayt for…
"The Magic Faerie Spice Shop." Maggie read aloud.
"Looks like we're going to have to pay Barmik-Qo another visit, this goes past due, and Palnick disappears." Star said.
"What did he buy?" Maggie said, shocked.
"No clue," Said Star, "But a pencil pusher's never paying that."
Maggie returned to scanning the book, as Star looked through the bookshelf. Later notes show that Gregory didn't wait for his wife to leave before he started going through his wife's privacy. She left notes specifically for him, saying she knew he was reading this. The diary itself revealed a long bit of history, it seemed to be a kind of cheap therapy for Melina. Her husband had been distant, cold.
"He was studying magic." Star said, breaking her concentration.
Maggie looked up, "That's dangerous without formal training."
"Finally pulling the mask off, eh?" Star joked, picking up a few of the books.
"No, what I do isn't magic, it's something else. But I did study some magic theory in my training." Maggie walked behind Star and looked at the books. They were advanced, and she spotted one, Grimward's Arsenal, that she knew for a fact was illegal. "This is pretty intense for a man without training." She said. Star might be right; all these people are shitty.
"Yeah," he put the book back, and looked around, "Maybe there's something in his room."
"Guys…" Called Da'La, "You might vant to see zhis."
Maggie and Star piled toward the hallway, where Da'La stood, the white painted interior door open beside her, with sigils, magic circles, and glyphs glowing on the inside of the door, shifting and turning and casting out a deep red light. A red light bathed Da'La from the interior of the door as she stared down toward it. Maggie and Star approached behind Da'La, looking down a set of rickety wooden steps and brick walls, all coated in the same set of moving and ungulating glyphs that cast a deep red light down the dark stone foundation, leading to a cobble basement, the floor of which was also covered in the ungulating glyphs and magic circles.
"That is some heavy-duty warding." Maggie said, staring down the steps. Something was wrong. Maggie felt it in the deep pit of her stomach, in the ends of each nerve, at the foundation of her soul. Every part of her body came alive and gave her one instruction, in which she used all of her willpower to resist, run.
"I'll go first," Star said, pulling his pepperbox from beneath his duster, and taking the first step on the top stair, whose creak sounded at the moment as if it filled the house.
"Careful." Maggie said in a panic.
Star led, followed by Da'La, and Maggie fought every nerve, and like pushing through the air like a thick film, she followed her companions down the deep red lit, dark basement. Star stopped at the foot of the stairs, and stared dumbstruck to the right, in which the rest of the basement stretched out before him.
Star's heart went cold, as his mind struggled and protested to comprehend the image that his eyes insisted it was seeing. In the middle of the room was a creature, seemingly made of shifting black smoke that incomprehensibly looked solid even as it shifted and moved. It was massive, maybe 12 feet tall as it hunched under the floor of the basement. Its face was almost raven like… well the image of a raven that existed in the head of a young child whose nightmares composed of carnivorous ravens. It's eyes, if you could call them such, were smoky black pools with tiny red pinpoint dots that cascaded a laser-focused light. Its gnarled beak was lined on the inside with what had to be millions of shifting fangs, that dripped shadow like venom between them, and down to the ground. It's body, a monstrous approximation of a humanoid form, was seemingly covered in smoky black feathers, that shifted and danced across the body of the beast. It's claws, which seemed somehow longer than its arms, were talon like black things that came to an impossibly sharp point, and on its back, two wings, that seemed impossibly big even considering it's body, which shifted as if smoke, draped along its sides.
"Tengu…." Da'La whispered to no one in particular, as her eyes sharpened like daggers toward the beast, while she stood on the bottom few stairs. The beast's face didn't turn but shifted and formed in a way the mind refused to grasp, so that it was directing its pinpoint eyes to Da'La.
"Guests…" The voice was deep, and somehow… proper. As if the monster had royal training. The monster’s beak did not move, but the voice resonated, filling the room, seemingly coming not from it, but from the walls. "I'm so happy you came. Now, I am willing to strike a deal. Release these wards and I will grant a single wish."
"Don't listen to it," Da'La hissed, "Zhe only vish it vill grant, is the wish to be eaten by a Tengu." Da'La never took her gaze from the creature, grasping the hilts of her swords. Maggie tore her eyes away to look slightly behind the creature and felt her morning tea come up to her throat. A half-eaten desiccated body in a tweed jacket lay behind the creature, its flesh picked away, and organs dripping and rotting out onto the ground.
Star didn't speak, he lifted his pepperbox sharply toward the creature.
CRACK! BANG!
He unleashed four thunderous rounds at the beast in quick succession, them seemingly passing through it with no effect as they crashed and cracked the wall behind it. Star impotently kept pulling the trigger, the tick tick tick of the hammer echoing through the room. The creature moved impossibly fast, and shifted like smoke, it's monstrous talon-like claw, grasping star by his chest, slamming and sticking him to the wall. Star stared into the empty, red pinpointed eyes and a terror flooded him, he froze as his mind filled with a fear he had never experienced before.
Da'La unsheathed her swords in a quick single motion, and pivoted to Maggie, "I need your blezzing on my blades." Da'La said. "Hurry!" She barked.
Maggie jumped, and grabbing her sigil, she spoke a short prayer to Merne, and her heart beating its way through her throat, summoned a golden light through her hands, which transferred down the blade making them shine and flame a golden aura.
Da'La turned "Now Run!" Da'La commanded, and leaped from the second stair, spining in the air, cutting the winged back of the shady, smokey creature, as wiffs of shadow smoke tore off in an impossible manner and splattered black stains against the wall. The inhuman roar of the Tengu resonated from the walls, as Maggie on her hands and legs backed up the stairs with speed.
The Tengu dragged star along the wall, and chucked him in the corner, Star howling in pain as he hit the wall with a thud. And sat frozen, as he pushed himself further into the corner with his legs, eyes locking with the monster.
The Tengu's body shifted and formed to turn to Da'La, whose sword lay spread in a dancers form to her side, her eyes unmoving, her face frozen in an angered determination. A claw came from the shifting smoke, the razor talons cutting through her reinforced coat and tearing the skin, opening her scaly flesh and spreading the pink muscle, which oozed a deep crimson. Da'La felt as if her muscles lit on fire as sound and feeling of ripping skin reverberated through her. Another claw forming from the shade tore into her chest and Da'La let out a yell.
The Tengu's beak-like maw of dancing fangs formed from the smoky chest of the beast, and came down to bite the head of Da'La, and caught the collar of her coat. Da'La twisted and slid through the legs of the beast, which emerged it's head again to snap at the sliding C'Shyk, as she twisted and stuck out her leg, and in a single graceful movement, like an ice-skater on cobbled ground, spun to her feet. Da'La was wearing only her underarmor now. A black single suit that conformed over her flat breastless chest, and the left side was dotted with shining steel plates, one on her shoulder, one like a bucklet on her forearm, two on the left side of her torso, and two down her leg. She stopped the spin with her golden flaming blades, pointed, one down, over her head, toward the Tengu.
A cartwheel following her flaming blades tore into the flesh of the beast, which she followed with a spinning slash across its chest, tearing black lines across its body, her swords glowing like a fire dancer's torches in the night. Da'La spun her blades and jerked them toward the demonic bird, a miscalculation. The Tengu grabbed her arms, it's talons tearing and piercing into her flesh, and vaulted her like a doll against the back wall, Da'La gasping as the air escaped her lungs, and copper tasting liquid filled her mouth.
The Tengu shifted toward Da'La "Good Effort," Its voice resonated from the walls. It opened its maw larger than what its gargantuan jaws seemed it should allow, as Da'La looked, helplessly into the dripping venom like shade of its maw of teeth that went down it's impossibly long throat.
A flash of Golden light filled the room as a long threading beam hit the back of the Tengu, pushing him over Da'La against the wall. Maggie, her eyes flamed a golden flame, as they angrily narrowed toward the beast, her arms outstretched, her palms together and flattened, she focused a narrow beam of light from her hands against the beast. Maggie stepped off of the stairs, toward it, "Off of my Dek'Har!" She screamed, a deeper voice sublimating beneath her own. The screams of the Tengu resonated from the walls as shade spilled onto the floor from its body.
Maggie angrily released one hand from the pose and extended it out like a claw, as a giant translucent golden hand emerged from the wall and grasped on to the Tengu, wings and all, slamming it to the middle of the floor. The hand rose, with the Tengu still within its grasp, and Maggie screamed and chopped down her other hand, as electricity gathered in the ceiling and a lightning bolt thundered through the room and struck the pinned Tengu. The room shook. Maggie lifted her arm again, and brought it down, but the electricity sparked, and the golden light faded from her hand. "No! Nono!" Maggie implored angrily, as the trapped Tengu opened its maw and released a black, reddish beam that crashed into Maggie, tossing her to the ground with violent force.
Maggie's nerves came alive with fiery electricity, as unbelievable pain surged through her body, and she limped on to the ground. The next sensation was razors grasping her body and her neck, as she felt herself lifted, like a stuffed doll, from the ground, coming face to face with the red pinpoint eyes of the enraged Tengu. Breath escaped her, as the terror of certain death washed over her body. The beak of the Tengu opened to it's fangy maw, as the voice resonated from the walls, "You will die, last, little girl." Anger filled the deep voice, as it tightened its grasp, the razors pushing into Maggie's flesh.
Breathlessly Maggie struggled, and whispered, "Merne's… word… You… will… die first." She struggled through her teeth.
A gunshot cracked through the air, harmlessly dividing smoke through the head of the Tengu, whose head shifted and formed toward Star, holding the long silver barrel of his Messenger rifle, it smoking against the deep red glow of the room. It loosened its grip on Maggie, who fell to the floor in a heap, and then two fiery blades pierced through the back of its chest, sticking our through the front. The Tengu dissolving slowly and flaking like ash to the ground. Da'La stood in its place, heaving, blood dripping from her mouth.
Da'La knelt to Maggie, who grabbed on to her and hugged her for dear life. Da'La helped Maggie slowly to her feet, as Maggie uttered a small prayer and her hands glowed gold. One on her neck, which healed the wound placed by the beasts talons, and one on her companion. The scales came together leaving only the smudge of blood on her body. They moved toward Star, who stood frozen in place, rifle still trained on the spot where the Tengu was, his eyes locked in terror.
Maggie outstretched her hand, still glowing, but Star jumped back. He stared at the young girl with firebrand hair, whose hands glowed a bright gold.
"What the fuck…" Star's voice trembled. "What the fuck was that?"
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Maggie sat on the stoop of the Palnick residence, staring blankly at the late afternoon cobble streets, as the shadows of the houses grew against it. Her emerald eyes unfocused and her mind blank. Star had left immediately after the battle, refusing to talk to them. She had managed to flag down a neighbor, to send a message to the Graveyard. Within an hour Palnick's former residence was flooded with inspectors, gumshoes, and Warders, the wizarding branch of the police.
Apparently those books were more than intense and advanced magic. They were magic specific to summoning. The rest of the hours passed in a daze, as she gave her report to a half a dozen inspectors and Warders.
She felt Da'La's body, back in her heavy long coat, settle next to her.
"He summoned a daemon…" Maggie said, emptily and quietly. "The fils de pute summoned a daemon because his wife left him."
Da'La nodded, staring out into the same bit of street Maggie watched.
"How did you know what it was?" Maggie asked, her voice defeated.
"I fought vone before." Da'La answered. "But at zhe time I vas part of a team of Dek'Har." Da'La paused. "I vas zhe only vone who made it out alive." Da'La finished.
"Star was right," Maggie said in a quiet whispered scream, "People are shit."
"No." Came Da'La, "People are people." Da'La turned her head to her Ypfhar, "People aren't essentially anyzhing. Zhey do good zhings, bad zhings. Sometimes zhey meddle in forces zhey can't control for stupid reasons." Da'La turned back to the street, and continued, "And sometimes zhey put zheir life at risk to save a friend."
Maggie weakly smiled at her Dek'Har, "Your wisdom knows no bounds, Da'La." Her eyes then focused behind her, as a brown quilled haired Nyrian man left the residence next door, wearing a thick smock, and welding goggle on his forehead. Maggie leaped to her feet and ran toward the wall between them. "Gregory Palnick is dead." She said forcefully.
"Oh gods--" The Nyrians face startled.
"He summoned a daemon, because of you." Maggies scream echoed down the townhouses. "You helped tear his life asunder, and he became desperate enough to summon a beast, and it ate him!"
Carveduster's face turned pale, and he looked sick. And in the moment of vindication, Maggie actually nearly fooled herself into believing it was all his fault.
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Inspector Renjin sat in his smokey office, having just vaulted over his desk, and crammed himself into the small cove between filing cabinets and filed paperwork that was left for his body. He looked over the day’s notes, having come in just past sun down, when the door opened and the hulking figure of Officer Hadwick blocked the frame.
Officer Hadwick was a large and dim man. Human, though Renjin suspected he must be part Veck because of his size, with a crop top dirty red hair, and striking frost blue eyes. He wore a thick reinforced cloth vest, with a Graveyard badge on the left breast, and a charm necklace loosely hanging from his neck.
"Mr. Renjin?" Hadwicks voice, while soft, thundered through the tiny room.
"Inspector, Officer Hadwick." Renjin corrected, turning his eyes back to his notes.
"Mr. Inspector Renjin." Hadwick came back, "You have a visitor." Hadwick shuffled his giant body, to reveal to Renjin's horror, the petit frame of the red-haired Sister Margaret, behind her as always her companion Da'La.
Renjin sighed, returning to his work, "I'll save you the trouble. I can eat garlic, I just don't like it very much; I'm not so much repelled by holy objects, but squicked out by zealots; and I can't enter a person's home without permission, because I'm a police officer, not--"
"I'm sorry." Maggie said, quietly. "I was being ignorant and rude, I didn't even realize how hard it must be for you, for your job…" Renjin sat up straight, taken aback for a moment. "We've finished the jobs," Maggie through Star's journal on the desk. Star had thrown it on the ground as he left the Palnick residence.
"I read the report filed by the second shift inspectors." Renjin said, "You had a rough day, I'll give you that. It isn't easy sometimes."
"Yeah." Maggie said, quietly.
"Where's Star?" Renjin asked, looking for him in the door.
"I don't know. Don't think I'll ever see him again." Maggie half-whispered.
Renjin took a quick look through the book, and threw it back on the desk, "You did a good job, Sister Margaret. I'll say, if the calling of the gods above ever wears thin, I'll have a desk for you here in the Graveyard. Nobody likes you, the hours are long, but at least the pay is crap." Renjin said.
"I think I'll leave it to you," Maggie said, weakly. "I still want the sky carriage. I have to go to Twilight Run, myself."
"I can arrange it for the morning." Renjin confirmed, and sat an envelope of money on the table, "Also a payment."
"You can keep it, if I can have one more favor." Maggie said.
"Ok?" Renjin sat to attention.
"I will need more hands for Twilight Run, if the reports about the New Clade are true." Maggie explained, approaching the desk. "Lodak and Kunjao are in your cells, I want them released to my custody."
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Maggie entered Tribsky's shop, stepping in between the clothes into the open area. Maggie nearly double-took, as the same man from the day before, stood in the same pose as the day before, in front of the same mirrors.
Tribsky looked up, his wig flopping as he dropped what he was doing and ran to Maggie, "Ma Soeur Margaret!" he said, excitedly, and exchanged Bises with Maggie. "Dear, I'm so glad you're here, I completed your dress just a few hours ago…"
"I'm actually here about that…" Maggie said. She pulled an envelope from her handbag and presented it to Tribsky. "Your payment, and my tickets. I won't need the dress. I won't be attending the opera."
"Ma Soeur! You look like death." Tribsky exclaimed.
"I've had a rough day." Maggie said.
"I can see," Tribsky said, solemnly. Tribsky quietly walked to the clothes rack and snagged a bagged dress from the rack. He unzipped the bag and revealed a jade green dress, with poofing shoulders that were colored turquoise, and emerald colored stitching. "Here, free of charge." Tribsky said, kindly.
Maggie stared at the dress, her mouth agape, and slowly grasped on to it. Her eyes welled; her chest choked. Her lip curled outward as tears flooded from her eyes. The stress of the day finally breaking down on her, she wept into the dress. "It's Beautiful."
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Maggie had met Lodak and Kunjao at Over the Edge, where they had gotten a room (paid by her, of course), and ordered rounds of drinks (on her tab). The potion had worn off hours ago, her body collapsing from stress, the release of crying, and sleepless nights, Maggie dragged herself with the help of Da'La to her room.
Maggie approached her door, opening it to the small shifting room. She turned to Da'La, and with her eyes, glassy and listless, wordlessly grabbed Da'La's smaller sword, pulling it out, and cutting the lantern off of its rafter. She handed Da'La the sword and walked across the hall, opening a window, then dispassionately chucking the lantern to crash on the mountains below. Maggie crawled into her bed, not bothering to change out of her sun dress, and collapsed her head on her pillow. Sleep, finally sleep
…
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
Maggie groaned, no, not now. She let out a few frustrated sobs and pulled herself up. Da'La, wrapped in a shirt that had become wet with the water, and a slight incandescent rainbow-like glow, shifted and shone through the shirt, which she modestly attempted to cover up, walked into the room.
"Tell them to piss off." Maggie said, collapsing back on the bed.
Da'La opened the door, and there stood, hunched, smelling of sweet Xericoz vapor wine, was Star. Star stumbled in the doorway as Maggie sat up on the bed.
"I'd never seen anything like that." Star said, obviously drunk. He approached the bed, and Da'La tensed up, which Maggie put up a hand to calm her.
"Neither have I," Maggie said, quietly and kindly.
"Then why are you handling this so well?" Star broke, kneeling at the foot of the bed. Maggie embraced him, putting his head on her shoulder. She felt his sobs, as she hugged him deeper.
"I don't know, training? Maybe because I'm in tune with the otherworld? Maybe it just hasn't hit me." Maggie spoke, lost as Star.
"I was useless against that thing. You stood up, and fought it, even without a weapon." Star rambled.
"You were brave, Star. You saved me." She followed. "Next time, I'll make sure you're able to do something more, I promise…"
She looked down at Star, he was asleep. Maggie sighed and set him on her bed and stood up.
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The dock of sunset harbor was a large paved slab that extended slightly off the side of the island, and was littered on top with airships, whose main tarps were in various states of deflation. Workers buzzed the strip, offloading cargo from the bays of the ships on to circular platforms, that hovered by some enchantment to the orders of the workers, and was rested to the ground, to be rushed off to one of the dozens of brick and mortar square warehouses, which were covered in large panel windows, that lined the outside of the dock, and separated the docks from the main city.
Star had woken to a note laid next to him, in the uncomfortable straw bed, in which he didn't know how he had got in. Well, he did know, his recollection, while hazy of the night before, was still retrievable, but he told himself he didn't know. He approached behind Maggie, who wore a jade dress, with turquoise accents, covered in a deep green hooded cloak that wrapped around her in the chill morning. She was nearly sleeping on her feet.
Next to Maggie was Da'La, holding several heavy looking bags, whose clothes had been repaired from the day before, and she stood at attention, as usual. Star moved alongside Maggie, halfway through a cigarillo. "You look like shit." He said.
"No sleep again," Maggie said, staring listlessly at what looked like the most adorably small airship Star had ever seen. It resembled a closed carriage, made of steel, with a closed driving seat and no horses, and on top was an adorably small long balloon, which was in the process of being inflated. "After someone came into my room and fell asleep, I joined Da'La in the bathroom. Couldn’t get comfortable on the floor. Gave up on sleep a few hours ago. Think it might stick this time." Maggie said, grumpily.
"Glad you kicked the habit." Star said, and looked, seeing Lodak and Kunjao standing off into the side, playing some form of Roshambo. "Who invited tweedledum and tweedledummer?"
"Didn't think I'd see you again when you wandered off yesterday." Maggie said, eyes glazed over, she yawned, "Besides, they were helpful in the Daring Titan. Good to have the manpower."
"Well, I still have property to take care of." Star said, putting out his cigarillo. "Besides I can't leave you like this, you haven't tested to see if I eat Grouper, Tuna, or Cod."
Maggie closed her eyes and smiled.
At that moment, a stout man with a plastic billed blue hat, wearing a blue coat that buttoned at his shoulders, with a square jaw and thick cookie duster moustache, walked from the small carriage ship, approaching the group.
He had a large smile on his face, and with a handkerchief cleaned a pair of brass framed glasses, as he approached, "Captain Drewyls." He said, placing the glasses back on his face and reaching out a white gloved hand.
"Star, this is my friend Maggie, and her companion Da'La." Star shook his hand, Maggie too lethargic to recognize the situation.
"And those two?" He pointed toward the Veck and his companion, who were in an intense debate about what time it's ok to release the hand sign for it to count.
"Lodak and Kunjao, they will be coming with." Star Answered.
"Well, I will take the luggage, and you can all board now, we'll be departing in five minutes.
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They had packed in to the sky carriage, which had red leather cushioned seats, two long benches on either side like an old carriage, and in the middle a wooden post which fanned out to a bowl, stuffed with ice, and three bottles of Merilian sparkling wine arranged in it, one of which Lodak and Kunjao took immediately and began passing between them. Windows surrounded all of them, including a divider window, with small holes drilled in, in which the captain sat.
The sky carriage lifted high above the city, showing a bird’s eye view of the cobbled streets and blocks of buildings as it rose well above it. Star spotted the pagoda on Druit Ct first, still under repairs. Then the Parsloe Quay, which he silently promised himself he would return and burn, and the tower of Cursebreaker Grunes. Then even the city receded back, and for the first time, as he was stuck in a cargo bay during the approach of the Daring Titan, he watched as the whole of Ja Reyil, opened up to him. The cities that dotted the landscape, the long stretches of plains and rolling hills, of forests and farmlands. The Rivers that cut through the land and misted off of the edge, and the Central Spires sitting at the middle of the mainland, like narrow artificial mountains scraping the sky. The city of Towers.
"It's incredible, Maggie. It feels like… home." Star said, as he took the scenery, with the dawning sun peeking over the horizon. After a pause he spoke again, "Thank you, for being there last night. I was… not being myself. You're a good friend. Thank--" he turned to Maggie, who was dead asleep, leaning on Da'La.
Da'La smiled, "She knows." Da'La gave him a nod and a soft smile. Star nodded back and turned back to the rolling landscape.
The Sky Carriage cut through the air, rising high over the landscape. A while passed, Star spending his time staring out the windows. He looked below to see a thick forest, with tiny lights, that shimmered rainbow hues, and that spread like pollen out of the trees as they passed overhead. The outside of the forest had strange reddish stones, that couldn't have formed there naturally, set like mile markers lining the side of the forest. He checked the heading.
"Uh, Captain Drewyls?" He called ahead.
"Yeah, Mr. Star?" Drewyls said cheerfully.
"What's below us?" Star asked.
"That's the Faerie Wood. Some say it's not just a forest, but a way to another world, or some myths like that. Those stones are called 'Dancers.' Pure Iron, they keep the Fae creatures from leaving." Drewys explained, calling back. He pressed glyphs on a panel infront of him, as he spoke, lights exchanging from the filigree.
"Shouldn't we be bearing southward, by now? Twilight Run is on the south most bend." Star asked.
"Yeah about that…" Drewys said, grabbing a small wire with a gem attached to its base and touching it to the console in front of him, blue sparks scattered across the console, and the light of the filigree went dark. Drewys turned behind him. "Barmik-Qo sends his regards." He jerked the door next to him, and it flew off, taking Drewys with it, Star leaped over the wooden stand and between Lodak and Kunjao, slamming against the glass. He really thought he could grab him. He tracked Drewys for a moment, who activated a spell, and began to fly in the other direction.
The Sky Carriage nosedived, Da'La grabbed Maggie before she fell forward and Maggie shocked awake.
"Good, you're away, move over and start praying!" Star said, grabbing a brass bar that hung over Maggie.
Maggie moved, "What the hell is happening?"
Star spoke, "A little going away present from Barmik-Qo!" using the leverage, he jumped and slammed his feet against the dividing window. "You got some miracle to make this thing fly?" He jumped, swung, and kicked again.
"I know one thing, but I haven't used it on anything this big!" Maggie yelled as Star kicked the window again.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Star kicked again. Maggie covered her sigil with her hand and began to pray. "Merne, I need you now, please," She began to chant in some other language, gold light emanating from her sigil and casting out through her fingers.
Lodak and Kunjao grabbed the rails, panicking. "Who the fuck is Barmik-Qo?" Kunjao demanded in vain.
"Fuck it, everyone cover their ears and hold on to something tight!" Star pulled out his pepperbox.
Da'La grabbed on to Maggie, and grabbed on to a brass handrail, gripping tightly, her scale skin turning lighter green around the ring of her wedding glove.
"Cover our ears fer wha’?" Came Lodak, as a CRACK came out the pepperbox, sending a tinning sound through his ear. The glass cracked, and with one more kick, it shattered, and the air came rushing out of the carriage. Star held on, as things went flying out the open door, and the air became light and cold. After a moment, when it dulled to rushing wind, Star dropped into the driver’s chair. He looked over the console, it was dead. Shit.
Maggie chanted to herself, the golden light spreading around her and forming a dome. The Sanctuary miracle was complete, but it would only save her at the moment. She concentrated her will, and funnelled it into her chanting, and the golden light brightened, the dome around her spread beginning to fill the space around her, but the dome thinned as it spread.
Da'La called through the howling wind, "How is it going up zhere?"
"Fine! Just… fine." Star came back. The console was dead. He touched the glyphs, concentrating on them for a moment like he was turning on a light, they glowed dimly for a second and suddenly blanked. "Shit."
Maggie stretched the miracle around the back of the carriage, she gritted her teeth in her concentration, "That's as far as I can make it, Star!" Maggie called out through her teeth.
"Just… give me a second!" Star yelled, concentrating again on the panel, after another false start, he balled his fist and slammed them on the console in front of him, some of the glyphs lit up. Star blindly started manipulating the glyphs on the console, and by some miracle, he managed to pull the nose up… but the Sky Carriage still plummeted. The ground began to grow big beneath them, enveloping the eyeline, as Star dove into the back crashing down the pillar that held the wine.
The Sky Carriage continued to plummet into the Faerie Wood.
DM's Notes: Actions have consequences, especially when I run games. The negotiation with Barmik-Qo, could not have gone unanswered. And while I was aware of that possibility, I had given other tools to the players at the time of the Druit Ct story to find other ways. But they made an enemy instead. To GM's, I highly recommend recognizing that revenge can come at a slow boil. Don't rush it, surprise them a few adventures down the line.
The thing most of note in this particular story, was the turn. I run my games in a peculiar way. I enjoy a lot of levity in my stories, I make a lot of my adventures, especially early, very fun and encourage laughs and jokes from my players. This makes it hit all the harder when the other hand drops. When gravity takes over. You see, while I have fun making peculiar adventures, and NPCs with supernaturally bad luck, I also believe in handling monsters, like monsters. I also take a particular delight in creating truly crushing scenarios. The same ability to make fantasy fantastic, can also make horror horrifying. And it's the blend of those two that often defines my style.
The Tengu fight played out almost exactly like it was described. The Tengu in my game has a fear effect and is an absolute horrifying fight for lower level characters. Both Maggie and Stars players ended up failing their checks to resist the fear effect, leaving only Da'La, who was at least controlled by a player, for most of the battle, it was intense. And credit to my players, Stars and Maggie's reactions after the battle was the key moment where I knew this campaign was really something.
So, a word about filigree. I use that word a lot to describe magical patterns carved or drawn on to something, along with glyphs and circles, what is that about? Well, Magic has become a sort of science in Schancier. Just like physics and steam brought upon the industrial revolution in our world, magic brought it upon Schancier's industrial revolution through the field of Magical Engineering. Magical Engineering uses magical channels, glyphs, and special materials to affect certain properties onto objects, or have objects perform certain tasks. This is how everything from streetlamps, to Airships, to Trains, to Star's guns actually works. They're enchantments with various levels of complexity, in which people concentrate on glyphs and can make them operate with little or no training.
While some objects, like guns and airships, still require a ton of training, things like cargo disks, or lights require none at all, it depends on the complexity of the devise. This concept I refer to as Magicpunk. A world of technology built off magic.
So how do I square this with the fact that magic was described last chapter as untameable? Well, Wizardry is different from Magical Engineering. A Wizard can control far more powerful forces, Engineers work to do simple tasks, that when combined together do complex ones, these are far less likely to fail, and nuances, that is changes in the conditions of magic through various circumstances, are a lot easier to plan for.
Magical Engineering is a very important part of understanding Schancier, so when you see filigree, know that this is just technology.
Written By: Jack Shawhan
Proofread and Edited by: Alhana Escher
Original Characters played by:
Donovan Hill - Maggie
Stephen Kirk - Star
Schancier, Whispers of Ja Reyil, and all associated copyright Jack Shawhan, 2020.
