Wading through the half-built landscapes of this liminal space is relaxing, if somewhat tedious. There just weren’t many inhabitants of this hidden realm, aside from the amorphous and often cantankerous mindless ones. James found them to be a welcome interruption, and made a game of dancing around their lethargic movements. He could hear the complaints of his superiors in his thoughts, and smiled. They could scold him for his laissez-faire attitude all they wanted, but none of them were Shapers so they couldn’t prove he was wasting time while visiting the auxiliary plane.
His current plaything was a large conglomeration of mouths situated on a long, sour purple undulating serpent body. It snapped at him futilely a few times before giving up, but anytime it tried to break away, James swiftly jabbed at it. It took quite a while to tire this one out, but as always, the monster became sluggish and stopped reacting to his provocations. Bored, he recalled his current mission was to find some rebellious prisoner that had escaped their grasp some years back, and having exhausted the only distraction at hand, resigned himself to actually following orders.
The haze around him was every shade of green and blue that one could imagine, and he had to actively resist the urge to think of the place as aquatic. Moving through water slowed him down so much, and he hated shapeshifting in this place. Always felt weird coming back to human form afterwards.
A few small, curious wisps approached him, and he batted them away from his face. The wisps were simple things, pretty but dull, a little like siphonophores, and absolutely thick in this area. Very strange. He had only seen wisps gather back at base. He had assumed they enjoyed the wealth of knowledge there, but seeing them in the middle of a forest with only a few people around was different.
Brushing away another curtain of wisps which broke apart and reformed behind him, he came to a clearing. An unmoving orb was in the center of the clearing, and the wisps seemed to swirl around it in a rough sphere, giving it a wide berth. The orb was a pleasant purple hure with red streaks. He drifted toward the orb, and made to grab it. His hand failed to respond. Confused, James looked down at his body, and found that his legs had gone, replaced by a long tail, tipped with a sleek fin. The aquatic atmosphere had finally gotten to him. Groaning internally, he tried fruitlessly to return to human form. He briefly considered holding the orb in his mouth, but decided against it. He didn’t have any teeth to hold it, and besides that, it could be poison. Or maybe it was just an orb.
Before James could decide how to interact with the thing, he noticed that he felt watched. His fish body jerked around clumsily to meet whatever threat might be there and he saw that the wisps had dispersed. The homogenous green-blue void had been slathered with an array of multicolored streams, all of which were converging on him. In a panic, he launched himself clear of the orb, disappointed that he’d not find out what it was or what it could do.
When he looked back, the orb remained intact. It seemed to...consume the colors. The thing never showed any signs of changing color itself, but it did get slightly larger. Weird. Like a black hole. It occurred to James to search for the source of colors and as he swept his gaze across the spirals and lines they converged into a single spot occupied by...Something. It took James a few seconds to process the points, angles, and curves that sat a few dozen feet from him. It was a human, wrapped in multiple layers of clothing. They had been upside down from James’ perspective. It must be their target. Who else could have even reached this place, much less retained human form?
Instead of clearing his mind, the sight only raised more questions. Why would he risk being caught out in the open? Why was his face the only part of him present, and why did it look like it had been fed through a meat grinder? When had he learned how to Shape?
Strange, very strange.
James had assumed that this mission would be a quick mop-up of some pissant outlaws and petty thieves, but lo and behold, they had a Shaper! However, this struck him as especially strange. Why would a Shaper be cowering in the dark? They were shock troops, capable of anything in the open battlefield. If he were in the other's shoes he would long since have carved his kingdom from the bloated mass of an Empire they lived in. Of course he knew that he would long since have been taken in by his own bosses and silenced so maybe this Shaper was simply smarter than the average peasant.
Even better, perhaps this shaper was not the only one to have wised up to the pattern of disappearances. Lord knows the Prime Union hadn't been exactly subtle in those early years. The current plan was an excellent example. Tearing down any city with a modicum of wealth and success sounds like a good way to sow confusion and stop information flow within the prevailing empires on paper but in practice it also scared the shit out of all the remaining cities, putting them on high alert and making it damn near impossible to sneak in and out. This meant that the only food and drink he could get was from the commissary. The commissary was terrible. James hadn’t eaten or drank anything remotely good in months.
And then James had an idea.
"Hey Chuck!" He shouted
Charles jumped "Sunnavabitch, what?! I'm right here, you don't have to scream!" And closed the book he'd been reading.
Charles Buckland was his CO, a staff sergeant to his own specialist, but the man wasn't intimidating at all, at least in appearance. In fact he looked as though he had been bred to be as nondescript as possible. Dark brown hair, brown eyes, just under six feet tall. Even his skin tone was vague. It could have come from some ethnic background but it could just as easily have been a well rounded tan. His only really defining trait was a long scar that wound its way around his neck and up onto his right cheek. James had asked him about how he had gotten it, but the man had asked politely that he not pry into a sensitive subject. ‘Politely’ in Charles’ case translated to ‘less than fifty swears per minute’. Unfortunately for Charles, he had let slip that he was once spec ops during the rant, giving James an entirely new and more fascinating subject to pester him over.
James recognized the book immediately "You reading the Bible again? Didn't commander Yankeedoodle tell you that you weren't allowed to have fun anymore?"
"No, the Captain told me that if he 'caught me reading that book again that 'not even hell would save me from his wrath'. He told you to stop being 'The reason God stopped answering prayers' so forgive me if I don't listen to your advice." Charles replied
James put his hands behind his head "I don't know why you guys bother with all the secrets. You can't even outsmart a single peasant dude and his hired hands."
"Maybe we would've caught them already if you'd help" Charles snapped "and we keep our mouths shut because we are being paid to do a job."
"Yeah, the pay that we can't even use anymore 'cause base has fuck all in it. But about that, I think I just found a way to get our city leave back!"
"Really? I’m so interested." Charles’ reply dripped with sarcasm
"I just found out where our man is hiding, and why it's taken so long to catch him. Turns out we just found the root of the little insurrection we've been having trouble withHe's snuck out and left his royal guards behind. We should move now, while the king's out of his castle." James glanced down "By the way, it's about to rain, you should put that away." He gestured to Charles' Bible.
Charles looked at the completely clear sky, then back to James with a long suffering look.
"Hey, believe me or don’t, just don't say I didn't warn you." James said "Are we gonna take him or do you wanna hunt him for another nine months?"
Charles shook his head, but stashed the holy book in a pocket of his rucksack, stood, and stretched.
"Holiday! Avery One and Two! Form up!"
A deep tan-skinned man in his mid-thirties looked up from his whittling, and grunted as he put his tools away. A pair of hands belonging to a young man and woman signed an acknowledgement and busied themselves as well. The twins had a redder skin tone that James had rarely seen, and jet black hair shaved clean on one side, but long and straight on the other. Neither had volunteered their first names when first assigned to the squad and Charles hadn't bothered to press, so they got numbers instead. One was a tall, buff and deaf man with boyish features and seemingly limitless patience. James had tested the man multiple times when they had first met and was fascinated to find that nothing he did even so much as ruffled his placid facade. In total contrast to one, Two had a lean gymnast build and a recklessness that James appreciated. He had applied the same battery of tests to Two’s patience and had been efficiently and silently dropped in a stunning variety of ways. Despite her lack of verbosity, she wasn't deaf and apparently simply preferred signing, perhaps out of solidarity with her brother, or simply because she disliked talking.
"The mangy dog has caught a scent." He turned back to James "After you, bloodhound.”
Halley trudged up a steep hill with rapidly deflating confidence in her recent choices. Was that light she had seen just over this hill? Was it further to the west, or had she passed it already? She scratched her mosquito bitten arm and
Just before she crested the hill she thought she saw a silhouette move quickly through the lattice of trees. She dropped and waited for the figure to approach her, but it simply continued moving toward the northwest. She exhaled and counted herself lucky the person hadn't seen her. Thunder rolled overhead, and the forest was wrapped in a deeper shade of dusky grey.
Rain poured around her and Halley had to concentrate totally on each step she took as she wove her way through verdant underbrush. The trees rang with a discordant drumbeat of water droplets on leaves. The forest had become layers of shadows, her eyes unable to adjust. Lightning lanced through it all, granting her a few feet more vision, but as the thunder rolled in she was once more plunged into blind grasping. Water weighed her down, demanding extra effort for her every movement, and she felt achingly cold.
Halley thought of Leann cooking on the stove, imagined the smell of fresh eggs and toast. She felt a little warmer, and held her head up. It was still raining, and she couldn't see well, but she wasn't so cold. She gave her surroundings a closer inspection and while she was just as blind as before, she could pick out sounds, albeit distant ones. Insect calls, bird cries, both out of place in the rain. She kept listening. The sound of rain grew distant. A single sharp shout broke through the overture.
Halley snapped back to reality, ready to run toward it, when something heavy slammed into her, sending her sprawling. Collecting herself, she rolled to avoid getting trampled and saw a pale, disheveled man staring down at her.
"Oh, terribly sorry about that, let me help you up." He reached a hand out towards her, and she took it. As she got to her feet, she thought to ask "What are you doing out here in this weather?"
The man laughed "Could be asking you the same thing."
Halley said "I uh, got a bit lost when I stepped off the trail. Now i'm just trying to find a good place to camp."
The man's smile pulled tighter, and his voice tensed imperceptibly "Well the best place to set up camp was about ten minutes ago, but maybe I can help." He pointed toward the North. "There was firelight in that direction before this flood started. Whoever set up there is probably still there. I'll show you the way if you want, didn't look too far."
Halley didn't notice the shift in the man's demeanor, but didn't believe him anyway. Still, she didn't want to upset a possible murderer right away, so she agreed"What do I have to lose?" She gestured in the direction he had pointed to. "After you"
"Gladly" James folded his hands behind his back and strolled off
Halley followed, eyes still scanning the trees for other shapes.
"So what's your name?" She asked the stranger
"James" He replied "You?"
"Uh, Halley. Not much of a people person, are you?"
"Why do you say that?" James asked, with a tinge of genuine surprise.
"Just curious, is all." Halley said, but mentally added Curious as to where your friends are.
"Well my curious friend, I too, have lost something, which I had hoped to find out here." James continued walking without so much as a glance back at her. "Although I'll admit my search is a bit more open-ended than yours."
Halley waited a few seconds for an explanation before asking "So what are you looking for, then?"
James looked back over his shoulder and smiled "God". Halley again waited for clarification which did not come "Which one?" She finally asked
Despite not seeing his face, she could tell James was smiling. "The only one, of course!"
Tired and confused by the half answers, Halley just stayed silent hoping that they could reach their destination without further riddles. Unfortunately, James resumed the conversation as if everything was normal.
"So how have you been liking these woods? Pretty, but damned if they aren't dark as anything in the wrong conditions. I nearly ran into a few trees on my way up the last hill. Reminds me of something my grandpa used to say. Well, he wasn't really my grandpa but he sure acted like it…" if this man really was a part of the group Gunther had talked about, Halley now understood how he had avoided them for so long.
James didn't once turn around, content to rattle off every word he had ever heard in every order he could think of. He was completely off guard.
Halley was thoroughly creeped out but she didn't enjoy the idea of sucker punching someone who could just be an incredibly unlucky idiot. On the other hand she could help the man afterwards if he really was innocent and if he wasn't then she would regret not taking this opportunity. She pulled back her arm, stepped into the swing and James dodged, grabbing her wrist. Surprised, Halley responded by pulling her left arm in close, turning her back towards the man, and swinging her right elbow into his stomach. He dropped her left hand to block the attack, so Halley pressed her advantage, throwing her left foot at the same spot. The kick caught only air, James had sidestepped. Halley followed the first kick with a right roundhouse aimed high, but her left leg slipped on the rain-soaked ground, dropping her face first into the mud. James closed the distance.
Anger flared up inside Halley,and she pushed herself up, but the man quickly shoved her back down, putting a knee on the center of her back. Refusing to give up, Halley struggled. James responded by grabbing and twisting her arm viciously. Halley's exhaustion from her efforts and the sudden pain stalled her attempt to free herself. James took the opportunity to pull both her hands behind her back. She heard James say, in the same matter-of-fact tone he had before "I was also looking for a hostage“ He drew a knife to her throat “Now stay still.” Yeah, let me just do a jig for you while I'm pinned. Prioc Stuaghach.
then Halley heard the man speak to someone she couldn't see.
"Hey Chuck, I got a straggler here. Should we add her to the lineup or just ditch em?"
Halley couldn't hear a response from Chuck, but James apparently had, because he groaned and said “Haven't I done enough today?” Then she heard the rasp of a rope being unwound. The knife retracted but she was still pinned, and James began to tie her hands together. The fibers slid across the skin of her wrists, leaving them raw.
“I’d appreciate you not attempting to kick me again, because then I’ll have to tie your legs together and carry you. Then again if you do insist on fighting, I’d be down. Haven’t got to fight anyone hand to hand since the crew found out that I cheat."
Halley decided to be a gracious loser and replied "Losgadh ann an ifrinn, cac ceann" Burn in hell, shithead.
James shrugged and said "That's what they all say." He pulled her to her feet and hefted her pack over his shoulder. Halley noticed that they were marching in the same direction as before. Was he really leading her to her family before? She felt a spike of fear as she thought why would he need a hostage? Her family wasn't rich at the best of times, and now they were homeless too. They certainly weren't soldiers, she'd never seen any of them do anything more violent than swat a mosquito.
She had a feeling that this led back to Gunther somehow. Halley promised herself she’d find a way out of this if for no other reason than to confront him. Anger precipitated into guilt and shame as she realized that her own embarrassing loss would hurt not only her pride but her family as well. The memory of all the kindness and love they had shown her over the years was a painful reminder of how little she deserved it now.
In the long stretch of a few minutes that Halley was forced to walk, she tried to focus on looking for an out, any opportunity to regain control but her awareness of her circumstances kept getting in the way. She could feel panic roiling within her again. She couldn’t even rely on her logic as a comforting numbness, because it only reminded her that escaping James did not guarantee her safety. Supposing she did pull a miracle out of nowhere and knocked him out, there was still an unknown number of ‘friends’ somewhere nearby. If it hadn’t been for the insistent presence of a blade at her back, she would have descended into a state of total inaction and James, mentally dousing his name with as much spite and venom as she could without saying it aloud, was not helping in the slightest. His mood had been entirely undiminished by their skirmish and he was now humming a jaunty tune. Halley didn’t recognize it, but she could tell that he was not humming it well. The song was riddled with sudden stops and restarts.
They reached a small clearing, grass just starting to reclaim the space. James stopped humming again and Halley’s mind prepared for another round of out of tune music when a shadow flew by her head. The last thing she heard was James yell “Fuck!” and hit the mud before a deafening crack rendered her ears useless. Halley ducked, wishing she could put her hands over her ringing ears, and turned to look at James. The man was laying on his side, an arrow lodged in his right shoulder. His left hand was pointing past her, then dropped in favor of clutching at his wound. Halley, startled into action, viciously jammed her foot into the arrow, snapping the end off and pushing the arrowhead further into James’ wound. His face was a colorful visage of pain and he curled up, but stayed conscious, only stunned.
Halley considered kicking him again but figured that would be indulgent and that getting away might be more proactive. She ran toward the nearest edge of the clearing and nearly tripped over a human figure collapsed against a tree. For the second time in less than a week, Halley saw a familiar face, and for the second time in as little time, she was forced to rethink her judgement of the man who lay bleeding at her feet. Gunther, voice clear despite the fading ringing in her ears and the growing red stain on his shirt, spoke "A little like deja vu, isn't it?"
Gunther chuckled, then took a sharp breath and grabbed his side. "C'mere, let me cut you loose"
Halley turned around to bring her wrists into his reach and Gunther began cutting the rope. The rough bundle of twine fell to the ground. He pointed further into the woods
"Camp's that way. You need to warn the others. Tell Treshkova and Laidir to surrender. Hurry."
Halley turned to look in the direction Gunther had pointed. She bent down and threw one of Gunther's arms over her shoulder and hoisted him to his feet.
Gunther was stunned for a moment from both pain and surprise. When he did speak, he did so gently "Halley, what you are trying to do is noble, but-"
Halley cut him off "I know I'm risking a lot by even attempting this, but you helped me, the least I can do is return the favor."
"You aren't responsible for me, but if you don't hurry you will be responsible for what happens to the others. Think about this."
"Okay, I think I'll carry you anyway because you can't stop me"
Gunther sighed. He gathered himself as much as a currently bleeding man could and said.
"Okay if we're doing this, listen closely. Stop for exactly ten seconds. Then quickly take two steps to the left and continue walking, Got it?"
Halley stopped, more out of confusion at the instructions than obedience. Then Gunther went completely limp and Halley struggled to remain standing under the weight of his now unconscious body. The sudden shift left her staggering, and Halley lost track of how many seconds had passed. Gunther jolted awake and barked "Move left! Now!"
Easier said than done! Still, Halley moved, and even in the right direction, pulling both of them to the ground. She heard a whistling rapidly approaching and increasing in volume until the trees around them shook from the noise. A lance of thunderous light bit through half a dozen trees ahead and behind them. It seared an image of vicious blue and black dots onto her eyes, as if she had stared at the sun. The thing had passed where Gunther and her had been standing two seconds prior.
"What the fuck was that?"
"Exactly what it looked like. Keep moving, please. He might...get back up soon." Gunther sounded distant, a ringing sound muffling his voice.
Halley was shaken, but obliged. No more magical blasts echoed through the forest, and Gunther seemed to be gaining strength with each step. It was ten minutes before they heard anything distinct from the constant rain. A shout broke through the night, followed by a cascade of what sounded to Halley like whip cracks that blended together until they were one continuous noise.
"Shit…" Gunther said under his breath, before demanding "Set me down here, no arguing."
Halley began to speak but Gunther cut her off
"That sounds like arguing. Just trust me, please." Halley set him down, a little less than gently, but he didn't complain.
Halley stood, waiting awkwardly. Her shoulder felt like a decompressing sponge without an entire person's weight draped across it.
Gunther let his head rest, propped up against the tree trunk, closing his eyes. He opened up one eye and glanced at Halley.
"Run that way. They'll be waiting for you. I'll give you a window of thirty seconds. After that, wait in the underbrush until you hear the gunfire stop."
"...Fine. But you owe me several dozen explanations when I get back!" Halley turned to leave but a whistling caught her attention and she dropped to the ground, a scalding heat washing over her back. Remarkably, a mental review of her body revealed no injuries. The trees in front of her weren't so lucky. Several creaking groans preceded their booming return to the ground they'd be born in.
"I could easily have hit both of you with that one, just letting you know." James strode confidently from behind the now smoking wreckage of a stump.
"I do wish you hadn't made me use an adrenaline pill, they're exorbitantly expensive and I only have two left. One now. Still, I'm impressed by you. Gunther, right?"
Gunther silently looked at the man with an expression of unrestrained malice
James "You look like you've seen better days, can I get you anything?"
Gunther spat blood on the ground and held up his smallest finger.
James chuckled "Yeah okay, I'll cut the shit. My bosses want me to hunt you, obviously. I couldn't care less who they like or dislike, but I expect a good price for a shitty job like headhunting, and they don't want to give it. I've contemplated quitting, but for reasons I won't go into right now, that would go poorly for me." James sat on the stump he had just created and looked between the two. "So I'm going to bend a few rules just for you two. The rest of my group is far more obedient than I am, and would probably finish their given task without mercy regardless of how many of us it took. But they fear you, Gunther. A lot. Your success out here despite the weight of the Federation on you has given them a bit of an exaggerated view of what you can do. In short, they think you're like me. A warrior. It's pretty clear to me that you aren't, based on the fact that we haven't leveled the forest yet, but they don't know that. They think I'll kill you before you even have a chance, and believe me, I could have. So what I'm going to do is make them believe that you are what you aren't, i.e. better than me. If they see a total loss in front of them, they'll back off for a bit."
Halley was suspicious "What do you want in return?"
Gunther kept his eyes on James, and said "It doesn't matter, we aren't accepting."
James said "Ah, but that's a good question." he turned to focus on Halley "We can worry about that later. After all, an active firefight is no place to negotiate."
"I said no." Gunther replied
James issued the man a look of extreme disappointment, and stood "Please reconsider."
The air around Halley grew warm again, then hot, and a droning buzz grew in her ears. Without thinking, she shouted "We accept!"
The heat instantly dissipated and James smiled. In better circumstances, it might have been disarming. Now it was just a cold, unsettling mask.
"Great! This will only take a moment." James sprang towards Gunther, reaching him before either she or Gunther could so much as object. He pressed a hand against Gunther's wound, causing him to cry out in pain. Halley rushed to help him, but saw Gunther jammed a fist into James' stomach, knocking him completely over. Gunther remained sitting, taking shallow breaths, while James calmly stood and dusted himself off.
"I stopped the bleeding. Seemed like it was distracting you. Now if you'll excuse me." James said, before sprinting away at a speed Halley was sure she could not replicate. She kneeled next to Gunther and asked if he was okay.
Gunther turned bloodshot eyes toward Halley and said "You shouldn't have done that."
"And what was I supposed to do? Let him kill us both?!" Halley shot back
"Yes!" Gunther gasped out.
Halley was incensed. "Sorry I'm not suicidal! At least now there's a chance to fix things."
Gunther didn't move, didn't reply.
"I'm going after him. I'll be back as soon as I can, okay?" Halley said
"Go." Gunther replied
Halley turned to follow James, glanced back at Gunther once, then hurried after her mistake.
Halley felt that she had stumbled into a rabbit hole, each question answered only led to more questions. Gunther was right, she shouldn't have accepted. She didn't even know what she had agreed to. Now she was chasing down a violent lunatic in the dead of night with nothing to her name but the clothes on her back and worst of all, her shoes were filling with rainwater. She prayed to every god and goddess she could think of that she made it through this, because not even immortality would save them from her if they let anyone she loved die.
Halley heard muffled voices and as the forest gave way to a grassy field, she saw her family. They were alive. The relief was as glorious a feeling as it was brief, once she took in the situation as a whole.
Halley saw that a makeshift barricade was all that was left of her cart, turned on its side and riddled with holes. Her family was behind it, flanked by two men she'd never seen before. One of the men waved at her, as if he was trying to earn her. A crack echoed across the field and the man went limp, hitting the ground hard. The second man cried out “Laidir!”. He shouldered his crossbow and launched an answering shot into the foliage. A fusillade of impacts in the ground and the tree he hid behind forced him to take cover again. Where the man, who must be Treshkova, was aiming, the trees lit up with the same burning red that Halley had seen in the sky. She shielded her eyes from the harsh light, but was still blinded for several seconds. When the sunspot glow of the fire arrow had faded enough for her to see, Halley took a step forward, intending to make a sprint for the cart while there was a distraction. Before she could, a hand grabbed her shoulder. She whipped around to see James standing behind her.
"Nah, you don't wanna do that."
Halley wheeled around and put her hands up in front of her. She was sure it wouldn't make a difference if she actually tried to fight him, but she would be damned if she wouldn't try.
She didn't even get the chance. James flickered out of existence and reappeared beside her. He held a hand up to shield his eyes from a non-existent glare. "Who are we fighting?"
Halley was getting sick of this weirdo. Then she heard soil moving and roots tearing, then felt her feet sink into the ground. Halley looked down, and found her legs half sunken in muddy clay. She tried to dig herself out, but the soil acted like water, filling in wherever she dug. All she managed to do was stir it further. She looked back up at James, intending to ask as politely as possible to be released, but before she could start cursing at him, she saw him smirking at her.
So she did the only reasonable thing, picked up some of the mud and slung it at his head. His face was splattered in mud, but he just snickered and said “Yeah I deserve that. Probably worse, actually. Speaking of...” James walked, the definition of serenity, into the field. No shots rang out from the trees. Treshkova tracked him with his crossbow, fired, and the bolt missed entirely. James lazily flicked his arm in Treshkova’s general direction and the man’s head vanished in an arc of flame that erupted from the ground. He, too, fell silent.
James then approached the cart barricade. Halley desperately and fruitlessly pulled her legs, but she was knee deep in solid clay. She clawed at the apathetic Earth, alternating between praying for help and cursing the gods for their part in her suffering. James arrived at the cart and put down Halley’s pack. He rooted around in it, his face morphing from placid to confused to irritated. Finally, he huffed and stood up. James looked to the woods and shouted "Hey, any of y'all got rope or something? We gotta take these people in, and fast."
"First of all, why would we carry rope on an assassination mission? Secondly, you better have taken down the target in record time because I swear to Christ if you let them get away, I'll cut your nuts off and feed them to the squirrels." A gravelly voice cut through the storm, coming from the dark gaps between the trees.
"Not exactly. He turned out to be really tough. I couldn't beat him one on one, so I knocked him out with that tranq dart you gave me. We gotta go before he wakes up. The hostages will be our deterrent so he doesn't just vaporize us." James called back
"What do we keep you around for if you can't even handle one amateur shaper? Whatever. Search their belongings. Maybe that cart has some-Hold on, I never gave you a tranquilizer dart. Dammit James, I told you not to steal shit out of my bags!" The silhouette of a man strode angrily out of the trees and up to James. Halley couldn't make out his face from where she was trapped, but his gait and posture exuded authority.
James merely shrugged and said "Hey, at least I used it to save us"
"You wouldn't save your own mother from a burning building if it didn't suit you. The target just ran off and you didn't want to get tired chasing him. That sound about right?"
"Come on, Chuck, have you ever known me to just leave anything unfinished?"
"Your application for Crown status, nearly every meal I've ever seen you eat, the program you swore would take only ten minutes, those arrows you were gonna whittle, the schedule I assigned you to write, several solo missions I saw you assigned to, should I go on?"
"I meant related to fighting."
Chuck began listing events again, with James trying and failing to interrupt the increasingly loud recitation of his failures.
James shouted over the impressively loud man. "Alright, alright, you win! I'll never again leave anything incomplete. Now then, shall we attend to the hostages?"
The man, Chuck, leaned to look past James and said "You mean the ones that are currently running away? I agree, you should go get them, Mr. Perfectionist."
James turned around, to see that Leann and Peter had covered most of the field they were in and almost made it to the cover of the woods. Feirm was limping, a few metres back from the others. James swore and took off toward them. Two more men and a woman walked out of the woods and stood next to Chuck, who was chuckling at his subordinate.
The woman beside him began a complex hand gesture, which Chuck replied to with a dismissive wave, followed by "Nah, this is more fun. The escapee isn't a threat, if he was, James would be running for his life. Just enjoy the show, Two"
Halley, who had been silently urging them on while trying to free herself, watched as James closed the distance on her family. Leann and Peter might make it to the woods, but Feirm was still lagging behind. The dirt surrounding Halley had loosened a bit and she had managed to twist and dig one leg free. When she turned her attention back to the chase, she saw Peter had lost ground to drape his flagging father's arm over his shoulder and help him to the woods. Halley could feel her other leg shifting, and knew she was close to breaking out. So Halley screamed "HEY!", hoping to buy her family time.
At once, Four heads snapped to face her. A fifth looked toward the others first, then to her. Unfortunately, while James turned his head, he was still gaining on Feirm and Peter. Chuck barked "Two, you're up. Subdue and disarm."
The woman snapped a salute and sprinted towards Halley. Halley alternated between clawing at muddy dirt and watching Avery charge her. With a huge effort, Halley wrenched her other foot out of the morass and ran. Trees whipped by. Avery was more than a match for her in speed and her fleeing was only delaying a confrontation. Halley knew that she'd lose this fight, but she had to try. When the soldier had come within three metres, Halley planted her feet. Two metres, and Halley raised her guard. One metre and she tensed, preparing her first and possibly only punch. But Avery never made it past a metre.
Gunther had stepped from behind a tree and tripped the woman, who fell onto her hands. Avery quickly pushed herself up, but Gunther was already sending a palm into the back of her head. She slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Halley tried to thank him, but he simply sucked in a pained breath and told her "Get moving. We have maybe a minute before they notice her absence."
Halley nodded and began to retrace her steps when Gunther stopped her.
"No. You have to leave them. If you fight, you're guaranteed to die. If you live, there's a chance we can save them."
Halley gave him an incredulous look and said "Who said anything about fighting? They take prisoners."
Gunther frowned. "I guess I can't exactly stop you from surrendering, but is that really what you want? You'll never be able to leave."
"It doesn't matter. I want to be there for them, more than I want to be out here."
"Fine. Be a rat in a cage if you want. I certainly can't stop you. But wouldn't you rather be free and have your family back?"
Halley wanted to say that she felt like a rat either way, but his words cut deep. Halley knew Feirm and Leann would say they would rather she stay safe, but that only made her feel worse. Didn't she owe it to them to at least try and free them? She jogged to catch up with Gunther.
Halley remembered the two men. Lasdair and Treshkova. One had died trying to warn her, the other defending her family, and she didn't know anything about them. Did they have families? If so, what drove them to working as mercenaries? There was too much she didn't know.
"Your friends...They were trying to help us. They didn't make it. I'm sorry. If you think we should go, then I could at least make that sacrifice worth something."
"I see...Then we should hurry. They'll be hunting you too now." Gunther walked with an obvious limp, and Halley followed him. An aura of defeat and despair hung over her. Gunther seemed immune. Or maybe he was just better at hiding it. He spoke up
"There's a safehouse about two kilometers to the east. It should keep us alive for a night. It'll take us about half an hour to reach."
"Why didn't you use it instead of camping?" Halley asked
"It was made to hold one person. It did, a little too well. The owner died in it. We tried cleaning it, but none of us ever wanted to stay there long."
"Oh."
The rest of the walk was spent in silence.
The safehouse entrance was a massive amalgam of mechanical devices, and the door alone looked heavy enough to crush a bull. The interior was surprisingly comfortable, though there was no intact furniture save for a cast iron stove and a large box which dominated the room. Gunther lit a fire in the stove, shut the grate and sat back against a wall. Warmth filled the desolate space. Halley chose her own wall to sit against and slumped down. The fire crackled.
"What were their names? Your friends?" Halley asked
"Treshkova and Lasdair. I wouldn't really say we were all friends, Treshkova tended to be more reticent about his life. Got the feeling he didn't like what I was doing."
"You didn't like them?"
"Didn't say that. Lasdair was a dear friend and Treshkova may have hated me, but I appreciated his work ethic. Las could be a bit of a scatterbrain so they worked well together. I remember once, Las managed to replace our arrows with extra large pretzels while we weren't watching. He even got me to help him with that." Gunther chuckled softly "Another time, he spent three days convincing Treshkova he could summon thunder. I helped him with that one" Gunther's grin faded.
“They sounded important to you. I’m sorry.” Halley said
Gunther poked at the stove coals with a stick “They were, but they were mercenaries too. There was always a risk involved. A risk I should have done more to minimize for them.”
Minutes passed in silence. Halley’s thoughts were jumbled. She kept looking back to their encounter with James. She had so many questions that she couldn’t form a cohesive sentence out of all flitting memories. The largest unanswered question eventually asserted itself.
“Is James magic?” She would have felt silly asking that question of anyone a few days ago.
Gunther was quiet for a few seconds, and Halley did begin to feel like an insane child, but then he said “No. Or maybe he is, and they just call it by a different name. Those people who work with him call him a shaper. They have the ability to manipulate the world around them to their will.”
“So they’re magic, well-armed, and well-trained? How have you survived this long? How can you even fight that?” Halley felt the wellspring of despair that had sat in her gut since the beginning of this nightmare boil up again.
“We catch them by surprise. They aren’t gods, and they certainly don’t know everything. Besides that, Shapers aren’t as powerful as you’re assuming, nor as rare. I know of at least two others both of whom are helping me."
"Okay so what's the plan then? How are we going to surprise them?"
Gunther raised an eyebrow at her and said "We aren't. I am going to call in a few favors and get the hell off this continent before they find me again."
Halley was stunned "You can't just tell me to piss off now! You said they were hunting me, and I'm not going to be a prisoner in a mausoleum for the rest of my life!"
Gunther, angry for the first time since she'd met him said "And I'm not going to have a walking liability following me around and giving away my position at all times. You can't even walk quietly, much less mask your presence from James. You have no skills, mundane or otherwise that could possibly help. I'm not making you stay here, but I wouldn't suggest looking for trouble, because those bastards will not show mercy."
"If you survived, it clearly isn't that hard." Halley snapped
"Don't be a child. Running from demons is no way to live." Gunther's face was impassive but his tone was strained.
"I suppose you'd know a lot about running, wouldn't you?" Halley felt a tinge of regret floating on the ocean of desperate rage.
"Yeah, I do" Gunther admitted "I also know what it's like to fight those people that nearly killed you, and I know the latter is worse. But I'm going to try anyway."
Halley's anger drained away, leaving the kernel of regret alone in a field of melancholy. "Sorry. I know I shouldn't take this out on you. But I'm not staying here. I can't. If I'm too loud, teach me to be quiet, if I'm not strong enough, I can train, but you can't leave me here. Please, you're the only person who knows what happened to them, to my family, who really knows."
Gunther considered her for a long moment. Then he said "Fine. I'll teach you, but don't expect it to be easy. Or pleasant."
He slid open the lid to the box and pulled out some blankets and pillows, and threw a set at Halley. "For now, get some sleep. I'll plan out our route for tomorrow."
Halley battled her fatigue, wanting to catch a glimpse of Gunther's secret maps and plans, but she got distracted by thinking about how soft the blanket was. She didn't even remember laying down before falling asleep.
Peter could hear the muffled voices of his captors arguing in front of him. The two men had been at it for hours, it seemed like they were the only two capable of speech among the five. At first he thought it was good that they were distracted, but it was increasingly clear that the man named James was the only one causing problems, and he had caught them humiliatingly easily. The other three captors surrounded them,so even if they wanted to run, someone was bound to catch them. Worse yet, He had no idea where they were going, since Chuck had ordered someone named Two to put bags over their head and bound their hands after they were captured.
Peter had tried to talk with his parents, and they with him, but one of the captors had hit him in the stomach twice, knocking the breath out of him and leaving a lingering pain. He was glad, then, for the bag since it hid the tears streaming down his face. This was all his fault. He had only wanted to signal Halley of their location, and instead he brought a gang of murderers to them.
He felt like an idiot for thinking that stealing that arrow was a good plan. It had all seemed so promising at the time. The drunk guard (Was it Ladair or Treshkova?) they were travelling with had been eager to show him the various tools they had found or bought. Peter was genuinely interested in learning about the tools and especially the weapons, but the drunkard had fallen asleep after only explaining the crossbow and its bolts. I'd be a fool to pass up this opportunity, he had thought. How long are you going to remain a passive little child?
So he loaded one of the more dangerous flaming arrows and aimed up, but angled so it wouldn't fall straight back down. How clever he had thought himself for that.
The endless march lurched to a halt.
"Load everything up. I'd prefer to be back at base before I look like a Santa Claus reject." The voice belonged to their leader, Chuck.
"What is that, like Unalndwe?" A voice to the left of him whispered.
"Thank you for volunteering, Holiday, you're in charge." Chuck said
Footsteps echoed, then faded. Two clunks cut off the sound and then Holiday spoke up again "Thanks, James, you put him in a bad mood."
"Nah, he likes being grumpy. I'm just giving him a good reason. C'mon, I'll help you with the packing."
Peter was shoved forward, and flinched, ready for another blow to fall. Instead, he was picked up, and not ungently placed on a hard bench. He could feel that they were in a small room, there was no breeze. He could hear shuffling, and knew his parents were close but fear sealed his lips. Two more clunks sounded and then a loud rumbling shook the bench. He felt a lurch and acceleration. Were they in a cart?
"Mom? Dad?" He said, voice only just set above the background roar.
His mother was first to answer "It's okay dear, we'll get through this."
"I...I'm sorry for giving us away. This is my fault, and I'm so sorry."
Feirm replied "I know, and I'm proud of you."
Peter was shocked into silence, but sputtered out "So you aren't mad?"
Leann took her turn "Oh no, we're furious. I can't believe you not only stole from someone who was helping us, but had the audacity to use a weapon that you had never held before. What were you thinking? You could have seriously hurt someone, or worse, yourself!"
Feirm said "But we also know you were doing it for the right reasons." Peter could imagine Feirm with a hand on her shoulder as she continued his thought "You set out with the right intentions, even if the outcome was bad. We know you were trying to help someone who needed it. We just always worried that the farm would keep you from making the mistakes you needed to make in order to grow up."
"I guess this is as big a mistake as anyone could make, huh?" Peter said "Where do you think they're taking us?"
Feirm replied "probably to a holding cell at the ribcage. At least that's what Gunther called it. Never like to talk about that time, and especially that particular place."
"Oh real nice, Feirm. Why don't you tell him they're cannibals too, while you're trying to scare him." Leann said
"He's not a child, dear. He deserves to know whatever we can share. Secrets ruin a man." Feirm's words would have been a great boon to Peter's confidence had he not experienced a medley of unpleasant thoughts at the implications of a place called the 'ribcage'. As it was, he put on a brave tone and said "We can handle it. Anything Gunther can do alone, I'm sure we can do together."
To his left, Peter heard a familiar, and unwelcome voice
"That's more right than you know, shortstack!" Had James been sitting next to them the whole time listening to their private conversation? Once again, Peter was glad for the bag on his head, which blocked out the hot flush that he could feel in his face.
"Sorry to butt in on your pep talk, but I had some news to share!" James said
"With all due respect befitting a man of your station, please, and with all the courtesy I can muster, shut your face and piss off!" Leann had found a new, less sympathetic outlet for her anger at Peter, and was taking full advantage.
James, instead of taking what Peter thought was good advice, said "What kind of news? I'm so glad you asked! I've got some news you'll like, some news you'll hate, and some news that isn't news!"
While Peter puzzled over whether the lattermost statement was meant as a joke or a genuine sign of insanity, James had deftly ripped the bag off of his head and removed his restraints. His vision restored, he could see his parents sitting across from them, Feirm calm as he ever was, and Leann squirming and cursing in both Imperial and in Gaalic. The space they occupied was dark, but it was clear that they were completely enclosed, save for a translucent patch on the wall opposite him, like fogged glass. It looked like the walls and floor were made entirely of metal. Peter gawked at the opulence. It must have cost a fortune just to gather and melt the material, much less shape it into a room. He had read of great stone monuments and castles, but even the greatest kings and queens in these tales limited their use of metal to tools and weapons.
"Alright, friends, I need you to remember that your cooperation is appreciated, but not required. Obedience will suffice." James freed Feirm, and his father stood up, and stretched.
Immediately after he cut her restraints, Leann swung a fist toward James' head. James stood stock still as it made contact with his temple, yet remained unmoved. He looked at Peter's mother with a disconcerting, blank stare, and then said "Of course, cooperation does make the plan a lot easier for you. First, a little background to your current predicament. I, through a great deal of negotiating, have convinced my superior to grant full custody, and full responsibility for all of you. I will kill all of you, should any one try to escape, or otherwise act out. That's the bad news. Unfortunately, I am also terribly forgetful, so if one of you, I don't know… spilled a drink on me, and if something I don't remember buying shows up one day, well... Capuche?"
Peter had no idea what the last word James had said meant, nor what language it was, but he had a firm grasp on the , but Feirm simply nodded and said "So that's the good news then. What about the last one?"
"Ah yes, my favorite thing: obscure and probably useless facts that no one in their right mind would consider actual news. Someone, probably just a hobo, nobody important, has shacked up in this forest, without so much as a pikeman nor a butcher to find them, at least anytime soon. That's all!"
Peter failed to understand the significance of a stranger taking refuge in a forest, but Feirm simply held out a hand to the man and when James shook it said "Understood. Pleasure to be working with you."
James smiled even wider than before "And you as well. You've got a smart father, there kid. By the way, you might wanna put those bags back on. Don't want Mr. Grumpy pants up front to get too ornery at the lack of secrecy. Have a nice ride!" James opened the window, and a roaring wind burst into the small space. Then he climbed out, rather clumsily, shutting the window behind him.
Peter wasn't sure what to make of that interaction. "Are we really going to work with that murderer?" He asked his father.
"Yes, we are. For now." Feirm sat back down on the bench and gestured for Peter to do the same. He didn't.
"Are you going to explain why? Or what he meant by letting us know about Gunther's escape?"
Leann sat down next to Peter and said "Your father was trying to keep us safe, Peter. We're unarmed and at that man's mercy, this might be the best chance for freedom we have. Just be patient."
"But why Gunther, Why would he bother telling us he was safe? And how could he know that?"
"Well, I'm not sure. Feirm?"
Feirm looked exhausted in the dim light. "I have a few ideas on the how, but telling us good news was his way of buying our trust. There is something he needs us to do that he can't trust to an unwilling slave."
"But we're still slaves. Treating us nicely doesn't change that." Peter said
"No, it doesn't, but it does give away how he will act from here on. He thinks we're simple. He'll expect us to use his leniency against him, and then he'll punish us for it." Feirm sounded more sure of himself than Peter had ever heard him, and was reminded that his father had lived a long life before he had even existed.
"So we have to deal with James only until we can gather enough resources to escape. That isn't so bad, right?" Leann said. Peter wasn't sure who she was trying to convince.
Feirm grumbled "He might expect that we’d just try to flee. I would. We should consider a feint."
Leann looked worried "What did you have in mind?"
"James will expect us to run or attack him, so instead we do both." The consistent rumble of their prison faded to a stop. "We'll discuss the details later, put your bags on and I'll tie your hands back."
Peter did so, though not without some reluctance "this is so humiliating…" he said under his breath as Feirm gently reapplied his bindings.
"As long as we are not alone, this too, we can endure."