FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

“I think this is a bad idea." Delmos muttered as they descended the stairwell from the back of the museum to the merchant's quarter below, where recycling and refining workers that lived in the Mines went to shop. Many of them preferred being underground as opposed to the city where housing was considerably more expensive and areas they would have preferred to live were downright dangerous. As the lunch crowd thinned the quarter became quieter, relatively speaking compared to similar areas within the city. Here and there music issued from brightly lit shops, eateries, or bars.

To Vick's nose the smell was pungent despite the large ventilation fans circulating fresher air from the outside. Most, he had been told, had their inlets on the eastern face of the mountains, away from the City and its own fetor which he had grown so used to he was no longer conscious of it; until he went to places where it was absent. The air being pumped in smelled faintly of pine, green things, and cold stone.

The concourse ran along one side of a vast cavern that had been bored through the mountain centuries before during the height of Metamor's Mithril production. Almost half a kilometer wide and three long, it was the greatest example of man's conquest over the Earth to scour its precious secrets. Much of the space was completely open, broad concourses running along either side of the cleft a hundred meters or so wide, leaving a vast chasm between crossed by flimsy looking bridges. He had looked down at the monumental cleft from the museum's viewing balcony that was now a couple hundred meters above them, and quailed at the deep darkness where the lights could not reach.

There were other concourses below the Miner's Walk, the lights along their safety railings defining them in the darkness like pathways of stars through space. That was where the residents lived and, below the nearest, where refining of what the mountains still had to offer. Now the mining went much further down and outward in all directions, mostly eastward deeper into the mountains, much too far for any hint of it to be perceived.

“It's chancy, I agree, but it's the best credible lead we've had, regardless of where it came from." Vick replied as he scanned the storefronts along the wall and kiosks set up along the concourse, looking for the business that the vampire had named; Sebastian Stonefinder's shop. His hand rubbed absently at the hard contours of the sidearm hidden beneath his long coat, still loaded with silver. They had also procured canisters of the anti-vamp spray from the shop they had visited a couple of days before, as well as charms to protect them from their dominating gaze.

Or so they hoped, at any rate. Judging from the carnage that had been found on the Street, and their viewing of it happening, they felt they could at least trust the deterrent spray.

They had gone more than a kilometer along the concourse, winding around buttresses left by the miners of centuries past, through arcades of stony columns, some still glittering with traces of Mithril too minute to be mined away. They did not need to go far before they found what they were looking for, a broad building constructed around one of the pillars tenanted by several shops. The one facing back toward the Museum was Stonefinder's Souvenirs, its front open to the wandering crowd and a mole theriomorph behind the glass topped display counter. Souvenir picks, ore carts, and other oddments hung from the supports holding up a second floor balcony that had no roof.

With no weather under the mountain the roof of the building was more to protect from falling rocks rather than rain and looked rather stout. Likewise the shutters of the shop were simply to protect the wares when they were closed rather than keep out any wind. A mole stood behind the counter trading gossip with a tall, slender woman wearing only enough for decency; clearly another dweller of the undermountain.

Rather than going to the shop Vick steered them away, toward the wall of the cavern where a cafe's tables spilled out onto the concourse. They selected a table near the wall that allowed them an unobstructed view of the souvenir shop. A short, rotund opossum theriomorph approached them moments after they had sat down.

“What can I get'cha, gens?" She asked in a thick Sathmoran brogue, her sharp teeth gleaming as she smiled with lifted whiskers. The woman wore only a sleeveless vest and skirt just long enough for modesty leaving her gray fur bare otherwise. The ratio of theriomorphs among the humans, cursed or otherwise, was more equal here than anywhere else Vick had seen in the vastness that was Metamor City. Again, that probably was down to cost of living here where typical humans felt oppressed by the weight of mountain above them than to any other social pressure, he assumed.

“Coffee, and a menu, please." Delmos said cheerily as Vick watched the crowds around the kiosk thirty meters away for an old man and young woman matching the vampire woman's description. That was when he noticed the pale faces moving through the crowd, their eyes intent as they, too, scanned the people along the concourse. Despite being spread out to blend in it was obvious to Vick's perceptions of naer'do'wells that they were not there to shop or sight see.

“Doubt we'll have time for lunch, Del." He muttered as he caught his partner's eye and nodded toward one of the vamp's wandering with purposeful aimlessness around the far side of the kiosk before disappearing around the far side of the building. Delmos' eyes scanned the crowd as the waitress turned her head to look toward the kiosk as well, suspicion letting her pleasantly raised whiskers settle to a more normal lift.

“Ye be lookin' at the pale faces?" She asked as she laid two menus on the table. “Nothin' unusual about 'em down 'ere, away from the sun."

That brought Vick's gaze around and up, though she was not particularly tall, not much moreso than Delmos was. “Vamps live down here?"

She nodded, “Oh, aye. They be a bit of a nuisance, but keep 'emselves pretty much to 'emselves. Gendarmes down 'ere keep 'em in line." She shrugged her shoulders ruefully. “Even some uni's be pale faces. One glance an', zot, dem's 'at want t' nick folk's goods take 'emselves a long walk back out t' the city. Even th' colors takes 'em a walk, usual like."

“Oh?"

“Aye, oh, 'at. Not many whites down 'ere, not many reds 'afore 'em, either. Jus' enough to annoy good 'onest workin' folk, but no' enough t' be causin' much fuss." She tapped her pencil lightly on the side of her order pad. “What can I do ye' for, then? Yer laddy seems a touch peckish." She nodded to Delmos who was perusing the menu, though he was mostly using it as a shield as he watched the crowd.

“Coffee will be fine, miss, some cream too." She gave him a quick nod, jotting on her notepad as she sauntered away with a saucy bounce to her ample hips, long naked tail swaying languidly straight out behind her rather than dragging.

Delmos let out a short chuckle as Vick picked up a menu and used it as a shield as well. “Lady said after three, Vick. It's only two thirty, and I haven't had shit today other than a couple of stale donuts at the precinct and some coffee on the way in. Taisa was at her therapist's so didn't make any breakfast."

“What, you can't cook, kid?" Vick joked as his eyes flicked from the vamps, which were spreading out further, taking up positions at other shops. One even sat at another table at the cafe but the opossum did not approach them after bringing them their coffee and a saucer with a boat of real cream on it.

“Yeah, I can cook just fine." Delmos shot back, also smiling though his eyes shifted to the vampire several tables away. “If I can nuke it I'll eat it." No mana-oven for them, on their budgets. They had to resort to the bog standard microwave. “Headed out early today so we could expand our kit." He tapped his throat with the back of a thumb where the anti-vamp charm hung.

The opossum returned and they ordered from the menu before returning them to her. She sauntered over to the vamp's table but a quick glance from him sent her turning away with a shrug, her long tail giving an annoyed twitch.

Digging his phone from his pocket Vick sent a quick text to his partner. “How many you count?"

Delmos' gaze shifted to the vamp at the table while he sipped his coffee. He held his free hand out on the table flat, fingers spread and two from the hand holding his mug; seven. Vick nodded and tapped away at his phone which was something the vamp might hear but not read. “Any sign of the fem?" His partner shook his head, setting the coffee back on its saucer.

Their food arrived while they waited; a burger for Vick and baked chicken quarter for Delmos. As they ate and crowd scanned the vamp left the cafe and moved to another store a short distance further down the concourse. The seven they had identified seemed to orbit one who was seated at a bench near the far railing. That one was massive; broad shoulders above a barrel chest, his face heavily tattooed in the tradition of the flatlands. He wore tight denim pants, horseman's boots, and a leather vest over his otherwise naked torso which was also heavily tattooed.

“That's gotta be the alpha." Delmos said, quietly, around a mouthful of chicken. “He hasn't moved while the others orbit. He's been staring at the souvenir shop the entire time, not a single glance anywhere else. He's leaving it up to his pawns to finger any threats." Such as a company of undercover police mingling into the crowd for a sting, the vampiress' warning had been apt.

“Catch the thralls?" Vick asked as he noticed others orbiting the area who did not have the tell tale paleness of vamps but the haunted, hungry looks of humans waiting for their next fix of vamp venom.

“A few, probably not all." Delmos admitted, wiping his mouth and setting his utensils down. Vick had finished his burger long before, consuming it offhandedly without being particularly aware of his actions. “At least two for every vamp, sticking relatively close to them but not so close it stands out. Well, for most of them, anyway." He nodded toward a quartet window shopping two stores down, two female hanging on a dumpy looking, nondescript but for the pallor of his skin, male while another male stood nearby watching their alpha. The girls were tittering and pointing but their gaze kept shifting past the man and toward the alpha.

Those four had utterly no clue how to conduct surveillance.

Vick's watch vibrated softly and beeped once; his three-o-clock alarm. The opossum ambled by and refilled their mugs but waved off when Vick asked for the bill. “Covered." She said with a whisker-lifting smile, “Lady inside." Her head jerked toward the front of the eatery which had more tables inside behind huge plate glass windows. There were only a handful of patrons, both within and without, so the vampiress seated toward the rear of the dining room was not easy to miss, if they had bothered to look in her direction. “Said you was friends an' asked me t' send ya in after three." She shrugged in confusion, took up their plates, and sashayed back inside with a saucy flick of her gray and pink tail.

Delmos and Vick shared a look, eyebrows quirked, before picking up their coffees and making their way into the eatery proper. The man working at the grill and opossum chatting with him did not look up from their work. The vampire, Helen, nodded slightly as they approached and sat down, turning their chairs to look out through the full wall window. Vick saw that, from her table they could not see the burly plainsman on his bench but had an unobstructed view of the souvenir shop.

“I see you brought your master." Vick said as he turned to give her a level stare, meeting her eyes squarely. She met his gaze, her pupils dilating slightly before contracting when her domination struck him and slid away. She blinked and one corner of her mouth twitched up wryly.

“And I see you learn your lessons, detectives." She did not bother to meet Delmos' gaze since he was still watching through the window. “Yes, I brought him, of course. We must all meet the final death, eventually. Today will be his."

“Seven vamps against one skunk and one mundie woman? I fail to see how that will work out in their favor." Vick finally broke his gaze away to look out toward the souvenir shop. “And when it goes sideways what are we supposed to do? We violated half a dozen protocols not getting a team in here to keep things from getting out of hand."

“It won't even be a contest, detective. If you had brought police or lightbringers it would've become a shitshow the moment some super trooper got stupid and tried to get the drop on a vamp." Her gaze drifted from the window to glance at Vick. “And one would have so, no, I'm quite sure you will have good news for your superiors."

“And what about you? Going to turn yourself in?"

She shook her head, “I have another purpose, once I am free. It will probably earn me the final death but that is what I am willing to suffer when the wasp lays its egg."

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?"

The vampiress' eyes gleamed briefly golden as she met his gaze briefly, “You will figure it out, detective, long after I am dust and you connect the webs."

“Dots." Delmos quipped, revealing that he was listening despite his attention focused outside. “Connect the dots." Helen merely smiled that enigmatic smile of hers and she shrugged, conceding the point.

“You want to die so badly?" Vick asked as his watch began to vibrate with the silenced three fifteen alarm. Helen reached over before he could pull his arm away and depressed the button to cancel the alarm. She did not immediately release his watch as she met his gaze.

“Would you want to live as this, detective Vickkers? Unable to see the sun ever again outside of a vid screen or holo? Doomed to consume the blood of others?" She shook her head sadly and released him. “Yes, detective, I wish to embrace the final death. But I will not spend my life uselessly. She has shown me a purpose to this doomed existence and I will embrace it." She jerked her chin toward the window and the concourse beyond. “Death comes."

Vick turned his attention to the souvenir shop and, from the right side of their view through the eatery's windows, he saw the man she had described appear. He was short, surprisingly short, his skin a deep ebony of a pureblood Irombian, tightly curled dark hair white at the temples. He looked like a picture of a jungle aboriginal, short and thin just shy of emaciation but did not seem to suffer privation. A long dark coat covered him from shoulder to ankle revealing nothing but his polished black shoes. He walked with a cane in one hand and with the dapper air of a pensioner out for a stroll. Beside him strode a much taller woman, her clothing dark blue and well cut. Long tresses of brilliant red hair fell to her lower back and she did not have the same casual aplomb as the man she towered over by almost thirty centimeters.

Vick felt a light touch on his forearm and glanced aside to the vampiress, aware that he had been shifting his weight forward to stand. Delmos also shifted forward alertly, his hand stealing toward the pistol at his side, but did not otherwise move. Helen shook her head fractionally and mouthed a single word; “Watch." So he did, weight shifted forward on his seat as the short man and the woman, not tall but towering over the dark old man, continued on their way, coming abreast of the souvenir shop.

A hulking form stepped in front of him, looming almost a full meter taller, and gazed down at the little man, massive biceps flexing.

Their progress through the labyrinthine tunnels of the industrial sector of the mines had taken the better part of two hours and Ash was feeling all of those stairs in her legs by the time they reached what the little man, Kai under the illusory guise of a short Irombian man, said was the main concourse. From there, he said, it would be another kilometer to the Museum and, beyond that, the transit station that would take them to the far west and north of the City. She had heard of Glen Avery but had never visited the bucolic natural location, among some of the most expensive real estate in the entire valley in which the massive bulk of Metamor City sat like its own living mountain.

Watching him cast the illusions had been both fascinating and a little disappointing. There was no flashiness she had come to associate with much of the mage craft she had witnessed over the years. Flash was not exactly how she would have described the gathering mana that coiled and twisted itself into complex knots at the direction of its caster, but others had exclaimed at bright colors and various harsh sounds.

Kai had merely concentrated a few moments, the arcs of numen around him rippling, streamers and threads peeling away and contorting into complex knots. Mana flowed outward from him and into those knots almost too fast for her Sight to follow while, with her newly opened eyes, she saw him simply… change. The ale bathrobe he had donned darkened and took on a smooth texture while his broad, claw tipped paws faded into polished shoes the color of his darker fur. Her walking cane became a man's cane, with a polished head of metal though, to her Sight, nothing much had changed. Her own clothes changed from the hue of plant life mana into a darker hue that was markedly different but still the hue of life mana, though it was now higher life mana; that of people and animals rather than plants. Despite that she felt no change in their texture; still stiff and chafing against her skin.

And then the mana simply faded from her Sight, melting into his clothing and her own, until there was no hint of it to her mana or normal sight. Even the newly refreshed charms about his neck and covering his eye faded into mundanity as if they possessed no magic at all. When he was done he had become the short, dark, wizened old Irombian who looked, to her Sight, no more magical than the common mundane. That was a trick she had never seen before and, when she asked how he did it, he merely smiled warmly and called it a trade secret. Apparently it was one that no one in centuries, perhaps even an eon, had perfected or it had been perfected so well she had never noticed others hiding in similar ways.

They did not talk as they walked, Kai with a confident step, his head held high, the occasional brush of his unseen tail reminding her that it was still there. The vast balcony of the Museum overlook came into view after almost two hours of walking and she was looking forward to the respite of a transit bench when a huge, hulking man covered with tattoos stepped across their path.

“We meet again, beast." The massive mountain of muscle and deathly pale skin said with a distinct accent that reminded her of the desert people, or the grasslanders that were not uncommon in the labs where her father conducted his fungal studies. Kai drew up short and Ash stopped slightly behind and to one side of him, the press of his unseen tail keeping her from stepping up to his side. The dark little man planted his illusory walking cane which was, in truth, Ash's touch cane under the illusion, and cocked his head back to look up at the man who towered a full meter or more above him.

Ash sensed a tight group of bodies closing in around them, stopping a few meters away, all tense and eager for conflict. She could hear the grinding of teeth, the creak of leather from boots or clothing, smell the eager stink of them in her sensitive nose. Kai she could not smell at all.

“And you are?" Kai asked, his voice now a mellow, aged baritone that was larger than the short human he now appeared to be.

“My master's servant. You are my task, beast, and my name you will learn to fear. I have come to take you to my master."

“And he is?" Kai seemed utterly unfazed by the vampire standing before them, during the day when any sane vampire would be safely secreted away in some tomb awaiting the night. In the caverns of the Mines, though, there was no night, and no day. There was no sun to send the creatures scuttling for the darkness.

“A name you will learn to fear, when He tells you."

Kai drew a long suffering breath and shook his head. “What have I done to earn a mosquito's enmity, then, that he send his asingh to capture me?"

That seemed to prick the huge man's pride and his pale eyes widened, their dark pupils fading to a pale hue almost as sallow as his skin. “I am no wagon mule, beast!" He took a threatening step forward but Kai did not retreat.

“And why, then, are you here? What did I do to earn your master's wrath? When? I have angered thousands, how is his grievance so great that he should deny those others their piece?" As he spoke the illusion fell away from him, monochromatic body appearing as if melting out of the human flesh he had worn.

“You destroyed his harvest in the north. For that, he demands your presence in recompense."

Kai snorted, a very animal sound, and barked a single, sharp laugh. “The timber crews? Those were my lands, you great gelding, under my protection. They refused to leave my demesne, and paid for their temerity and attacks. That's it? I killed, what, a few hundred of his pawns and now he is so angry he wants my pelt?"

“What he desires of you is not my care, beast. He demands I bring you, and bring you I shall."

“I refuse."

The huge man's tattooed face hardened and he smiled dangerously, lips peeling back from yellowed teeth revealing his vampire fangs. His minions shifted and tensed, shifting a step closer. “That is not an option." He raised one hand slightly but Kai stopped him with a short lift of his own hand.

“Think carefully, plainsman. I have already slain those who trespassed upon my lands, poached the trees from my forests, harmed the spirits there. You lost a score of minions in our first encounter. Do you wish to take another such risk?"

The huge man leaned down to look Kai in his good eye, “Do you?" Kai shrugged. “Take her." The man waved one hand in command and the crowd pushed in with various cries, grunts, or bellows.

Ash, who had slipped her hand into her bag when the mob first made itself known, drew out what she grasped; a large canister of Vamp-away. Those who already knew about it, all of them vampires, abruptly fell back while the thralls pressed in. The canister let out a sharp rushing noise and white fog spewed forth as she turned her back to Kai and sprayed the closing crowd. Many reflexively drew back while others staggered, some falling to clutch at their faces and began coughing furiously. All of those who could gather themselves retreated, also coughing and scrubbing furiously at their faces as the pepper spray bit into their exposed flesh.

Kai thrust out both hands and those coming in toward them from the front were thrown back, toppling to slide another ten meters further away. By then the vampires had all drawn well out of Ash's range. The fallen thralls gathered themselves and, at the urging of their vampiric masters, rushed in again only to be thrown back once more by an invisible thrust of magic. Ash's foes writhed where they had fallen or retreated even further, blinking their stinging eyes, coughing, and spitting to rid their mouths of the harsh chemical burn and overwhelming taste of garlic.

Focusing her Sight, which she found a bit more challenging now that she could see everything, Ash snatched at the essence of her spray as it poured forth. Thinking themselves out of range those who had been least affected gathered and regrouped, only to discover a cloud of the substance moving through them. Ash could not move it swiftly, but she could direct the direction of its drift since there was nothing stronger than a slight breeze in the caverns. As each scattering grew into a group she directed the cloud to drift among them, breaking them up in fresh bouts of hacking and coughing.

Seeing that the thralls were being kept at bay for the most part Kai focused on the vampires who had retreated well beyond the slow moving fog's range. Only the hulking plainsman remained close but he had used an enchantment to raise a sphere around himself that was impervious to both his magical assaults and Ash's fog of agony. For the moment Kai ignored the vampire who seemed quite hesitant to approach until he began attacking in a different way.

Reaching out one hand he closed it into a fist and raised it above his head. Well beyond the staggering, coughing thralls one of the man's vampire henchmen rose abruptly into the air with a cry of surprise. Once the body was well above the crowd it abruptly burst into flame, shrieking like a teakettle as the air boiled from its lungs. Within seconds nothing was left but a pall of ash raining down on those below.

“Get the girl!" The tattooed plainsman bellowed, putting the power of Command into his words. “Kill her! Kill them both!"

Though they were terrified both of the mage batting their thralls around like tenpins and the agonizing fog that swirled among them the younger vampires, under the compulsion of his Command, surged forward. Kai let them come, still sweeping one hand in short, idle gestures that sent those thralls who had regained their feet sprawling once more. Between his spells and Ash's rolling fog there was a wide, clear space between them and the crowd that, by now, consisted only of vampires and thralls. Any locals had long since fled, either completely or just far enough where they could observe from what they felt was a safe distance, their phones held up to record the battle royale.

Occasionally a loud shot rang out but no one seemed to be hit, either among the thralls or the skunk and woman standing back to back in the center. Those thralls who were armed were either half blind from the chemical agents or knocked sprawling each time they tried to rise. Under their master's compulsion the remaining vampires surged in from all sides, their faces twisted in rictus snarls of animal fury.

Two meters from the pair, their focus on Ash, they all slammed into a wall of flame that sprang into being when the first of them collided with it. Immediately those that could not stop their sight defying headlong charge burst into flames. They sprang away, attempting to flee, but became gyrating pyres that staggered a short distance before collapsing. Only one managed to stop in time, throwing an arm up to shield its eyes from the crackling wall a meter before them. Slowly they turned a look to the plainsman before taking a step and reaching for Ash, plunging their arm into the fiery wall. They did not scream or attempt to flee, merely standing before the inferno, their head disappearing into a ball of flame still looking back toward the plainsman. As the vampire's ashes sloughed to the floor the fiery shield flickered and died.

“Looks like your own puppets were glad to rid themselves of you, asingh." Kai taunted as he swept one hand outward, toppling thralls once more. Ash's cloud had also begun to dissipate, her attachment to its essence cut off by the blinding wall of fire that had sprung up before her and was now too far away for her to recapture it.

“Your shield is spent, animal." The plainsman snarled, moving forward at blinding speed until he was barely an arm's length from Kai whose arms were, perforce, quite short. “Mine is not."

Kai's teeth gleamed white in the black fur of his muzzle and he nodded. “Useful shield, a nice big sphere that keeps out magic but lets in living flesh, so you can get close enough to bite." The skunk commented as the muscles in the vampire's neck bulged, his thick arms flexed and strained but could not get him any closer. “Its flaw is that I am now inside of it."

The plainsman's eyes went wide at that simple statement as Kai reached up and pressed a single fingertip firmly against his brow. His eyes rolled up to follow that reaching hand and, when it touched, the man keened in abrupt agony. When Kai's digit drew away a black pad-print marred the pallid, tattooed skin of the vampire, its edges glimmering like the end of a cigarette. Kai lowered his hand, palm outward, and thrust forward with a firm push. Though he did not touch the vampire the plainsman was sent sprawling ten meters away, still wailing and scrubbing frantically at his brow.

The black blotch had grown even in that short moment, now covering half of his forehead and downward, his brows blackening and sloughing away. The more the man desperately scrubbed the more ash his hands cast away, the motions of his body becoming uncoordinated. Pale eyes, irises a brilliant pale hue, turned to fix on Kai shortly before they succumbed to ash. The man tried to rise, gaining his knees before keeling over forward, all muscle control lost. Most of his head burst in a splay of ash as his dying body twitched and writhed like a broken snake.

Many of the thralls had managed to find their feet, most of them fleeing while others turned toward the two they had been cast against as cannon fodder for their parasitic masters. A few raised firearms in shaky hands, still blinking stinging chemicals from their eyes, and tried to aim. They suddenly found that their weapons had disassembled themselves, spilling parts and bullets on the floor around them as they juggled what remained.

“Let's get -" Kai said, turning his one-eyed gaze to Ash and offering an arm.

“Ashleigh Penning?" A man's voice called out from a short distance away.

When the screams of pain began and bodies went sprawling across the floor Vick and Delmos stood, hands going for their sidearms.. Helen grabbed each of their shoulders in a grip that was frighteningly strong, almost painful, and held them back. “Wait!" She hissed furiously from between them, her attention fixed on the crowd outside. The opossum and grill cook had moved to the back of the store, near a doorway leading deeper into the mountain, and watched as well. The few other patrons that had been there also retreated, hiding behind overturned tables at the rear of the cafe, a few braver ones holding up phones to film the scene outside.

Standing alone in the middle of the sprawled or retreating mob was a short skunk-morph and a woman in pale green professional clothing, the first with his hand out and the other with a large canister in her hand from which issued a thick stream of white vapor. Vick assumed that the skunk was their mysterious mage, considering those he had been facing were now a tumbled mass many meters away from him. The woman's cloud of vapor gathered itself and began drifting into those who were still standing, spreading chaos and spastic fits if violent coughing wherever it passed.

A body rose up from among the rear most ranks of the thralls, bursting into flame several meters above and was quickly reduced to ash; a vampire. Standing closer to the skunk and woman the taller man covered in tattoos was bellowing, a shield flickering around him as the skunk sent a burst of flame at him. The strangely mobile fog also swirled ineffectually against the shimmering sphere.

Vick tried to jerk away when gunshots rang out but the vampires' hand upon his shoulder was as unmoving as an anchor. He felt her shuddering and, glancing back, saw her face twisted into a terrifying snarl as she leaned back as if fighting a monstrous push at her back. Only the anchors of her hand upon his shoulder, and the other on Delmos', kept her rooted where she was. “Soon." She hissed in a strained voice, teeth and vampire fangs bared in a fierce grimace. “Soon!"

A flash of orange brought his gaze forward and Delmos gasped, throwing up an arm to shield his eyes as a towering pillar of flame, fully twenty meters high, erupted in the center of the plaza. He could feel the heat of it even at their remove and behind the cafe's plate glass windows. Several smaller flames staggered away, the wild limbs lashing from those secondary pillars revealing that they had been people, likely vampires judging by how swiftly they were reduced to smoking heaps. A last one erupted a moment later yet simply stood there for several long seconds before collapsing. The huge pillar flickered out a couple of seconds later to reveal the skunk and woman, unharmed, in the center of where it had been.

The big vampire, the last one other than Helen who grasped their shoulders with her implacable iron grip, charged forward, his shield flickering briefly before encompassing the skunk. There the man froze but Vick could see, by the tension in the unmoving form, that he wanted to continue forward. The skunk said a few words and pressed the tip of one finger to the man's head, then hurled him back with a thrust of one hand. He flew several meters before striking the ground and sliding a few more, screaming like a wounded animal and lashing at his own head. Moments later he keeled over and his head collapsed in a spill of ash which was scattered as he thrashed in the throes of his final, true death.

“Death has come." Helen breathed, the tension leaving her voice and replaced with something approaching rapture. “I am free. Free!" Her hands released them convulsively as she retreated a couple of steps, placing them over her mouth.

“Free to do what?" Delmos said with a brief glance back at her, drawing his pistol from its holster but keeping it pointed down.

“To aid the web spinner as she seeks to ensnare mighty prey, and prevent the entire forest being consumed by their ultimate conflict." She gave them a brief, cold smile with her pale lips without showing teeth and, crossing her arms over her breast, bowed deeply to them. “Worry not, detectives, this sacrifice will bring me to my final peace, in the end. I have accepted that and will embrace it. I will not become a monster like my former master." And then she was gone, napkins scattering from tables in the wake of her swift escape, slipping past the cook and opossum server before they even had a chance to track her passage.

“Clear as mud." Delmos groused, rolling his shoulder. Vick did similarly as they made their way to the door, the vampires' grasp had been firm enough to leave a bruise. Both emerged from the cafe weapons in hand though pointed down in high ready positions. They made their way through the tables, many of which had been overturned by the retreating locals or sliding thralls. More than a few of them were regaining their feet, looking around in confusion. Those who spotted the two detectives, weapons out, moved away from them hastily.

The short skunk-theiromorph and the woman stood where they had first been accosted by the alpha vampire and his gang, neither looking toward Vick or Delmos.

“Ashleigh Penning?" Vick called out from ten or so meters as he came to a stop and braced his feet. He had little hope of bracing a mage, not knowing how many readied spells he had left, but any action it made would be considered a valid escalation to deadly force. The two turned toward the detectives but made no threatening moves, the woman did not raise the canister of chemical agents from her hip.

“Yes?" The woman asked.

“You are Ashleigh Penning?"

“Yes. And you are?" Moving slowly she lowered the canister to the ground and released it. The skunk, who had a patch over one badly scarred eye, made no move whatsoever, tracking them with their one remaining eye.

“Detectives Vickkers and Delmos, second precinct homicide." Vick released one hand from his sidearm, not moving it from the high ready position at his breast, and drew out his badge to let it hang over the front of his supporting hand as he returned its grip to his pistol. Once he had regained his stance Delmos did the same. “We have been looking for you, Miss Penning, for several days."

Everything had happened in a minute, perhaps less, certainly far more swiftly for any sort of coordinated response to a gathering of vampires and thralls in the middle of the concourse.

The skunk theriomorph barely came to Vick's chest as the detectives approached to stop a few meters away. He held out his police badge and they both gave it a glance, the woman's hand coming to rest familiarly on the skunk's shoulder. Oh, that's how it went down, he realized. “You've found me, then. And?" She cocked her head and regarded the two tense detectives as if there was something fascinating about them.

“I would like to have you two come down to the station and clarify some things." While Delmos stood a couple of paces back and maintained his ready stance Vick flexed his fingers away from his sidearm and carefully let it down, holstering it.

The skunk shook his head regretfully. “Not today, detective."

Vick looked down at him, one eyebrow lifting as he regarded the impassive, and implacable, gaze of the one-eyed skunk. The patch of dark leather covering his left eye was inset with three gems or costume jewels. “We have nineteen bodies that require some explanation, sir. I'm afraid I am going to have to detain -"

“No, detective, not today. Ash and I have someplace to be."

With a long suffering sigh Vick reached to his back and took the hand restraints from his belt. “Turn around, you." He returned in his low, rumbling perp growl. “Nineteen bodies on the Street, who knows how many heaps of ash here, and a large number of very confused thralls also requires answers."

The skunk held up one hand in a staying gesture. “I did not say we would not answer your questions, detectives." His eye dropped and shifted to one side as Delmos came to support his partner. Even he stood slightly taller than the skunk. “I just said we will not do it today, and most certainly not now."

“Miss Ashleigh, would you -"

She shook her head, “No, detective. But, as he said, we will. I have been found, you may report that. I am sure my friends will be very relieved to find out I am alive, well, and safe." Her hand squeezed the skunk's shoulder lightly and the way she stood behind and to one side of him spoke volumes. They were an item, either through coercion or willing participation he had no way of knowing without a department mage-psychologist to prize their way through it. “I am very well, sirs, and not under any threat or in any danger, now." She turned slightly and nodded toward the smoldering limbs lying akimbo on the floor. “That vampire attempted to kidnap Kai, here, and myself in the bargain. Kai saved me, and has been protecting me until they caught up with us."

“And they have been dealt with." The skunk, Kai, said in turn. “You've got a couple dozen very confused, very lost ex-thralls to manage for the time being, detective. If you would give me your cards I will contact you in a few days. After we've had time to recover from our harrowing experience."

“I'm afraid we cannot allow you to do that, mister Kai, miss Ashleigh. You will need to come with us." Vick reiterated as he took a step forward. He held up his hand restraints and Delmos did the same.

“We have broken what laws?" Kai demanded shortly, not backing down, the fur along his neck above the robe he wore and his tail bushing considerably. That's when Vick realized he was bracing a skunk, one who's spray had potentially resulted in the deaths of nineteen thralls. He might not have the overwhelming musk of a skunk at the moment, but one quick lift of that huge tail could change things dramatically, particularly to the poor soul standing behind him to secure handcuffs.

“Countless." Delmos said sternly. “Nineteen dead on the Street. At least six more dead here, and we'll never know if they were empire citizens or not with nothing but ash as evidence. Video of you two," He raised a child sized hand to point at each of them in turn, “causing those deaths. Until we have asked our questions and received satisfactory answers you are being detained for nineteen counts of homicide." His hand jerked to point at the piles of ash and the remains of a smoldering corpse that was little more than tattooed hands and boots. “And that's only for precinct two. I'm sure the local gendarmes will have their own inquiry to follow with you."

The skunk tilted his head back and let out a long, aggrieved sigh. “May I see your phone, detective, or give you a number to dial? I hate to pull rank, but you leave me little recourse."

Vick raised an eyebrow, “Pull rank?"

“Yes, detective. As a member of the Magestrix's security forces I outrank both of you, and your entire department. Your phone?" Even the woman seemed somewhat surprised at his revelation but did nothing more than blink down at him. Vick looked to Delmos, who shrugged with a helpless expression, before taking his phone out.

“What number?"

Kai rattled off a long string of numbers, considerably longer than a typical telephone exchange, but it went through. He put it on speaker and held it toward the skunk. A few seconds later a therianthropic churr answered. “Yes, who is this? Do you know whom you are calling?"

“Yes." Kai answered softly, whiskers twitching. “It's me. Is Rick where we can talk?"

“His study with a few of his staff, but I can get him. I doubt he'll be happy to hear your voice." Her own was a distinct contralto churr, clearly therianthropic but that gave no indication of species. It also seemed pleased to hear the skunk, Kai's, voice.

“No doubt." The skunk smiled ruefully and sighed. “I need him to authorize my release, plus one, from police custody."

The woman on the other end of the connection laughed. “They finally caught you, after all this time? And they're still alive? Muri, you're actually becoming kind in your dotage."

Vick's eyes went wide and he sensed Delmos tense. 'Still alive'?

“You would not believe, Kay, you simply would not. I'll fill you in later, but for now I need to get to my villa and these detectives, who are, yes, still alive, refuse to let us pass." He paused for a minute, then beamed though whomever was at the other end of the call could not see his face. “Thorne's curse has been lifted, Kay. I'm free of it, finally, after all this time."

“Truly?" The woman sounded shocked but also as delighted as the skunk sounded. “That is wonderful! You will have to tell me, and soon! How?" She could not help but ask.

“A long story, Kay. I still need to annoy Rick."

Then it hit him, like a freight train loaded with lead bricks, and Vick staggered in place, drawing everyone's eye as he stared, aghast, at the skunk. A member of the security forces? Rick? Kay? “Oh sweet Eli, is that Minister Kayla?" He choked in a whisper, his eyes so wide he thought they might fall out of their sockets. Kai's toothy smile widened and he nodded, shifting to put one arm around Ashleigh's waist.

“Yes." The woman on the other end of the phone answered, a hint of humor in her voice when she heard his shock. “And my husband Rickkter, General of the Armed Forces, is in the next room. Do you still want me to fetch him, Muri?"

Kai tilted his head and met Vick's stupefied gaze with a gleam in his one dark eye, asking a question without speaking. Vick shook his head with a short twitch, eyes widening desperately as Delmos' jaw fell unhinged. These two, or at least the skunk, knew the head of the armed forces and his wife well enough to have their, or her, personal telephone number?

“That's fine, Kay, I won't bother him today. Let him know I called, and why, because I'm sure he'll be quite displeased to have missed getting to yell at me. Again."

The woman laughed warmly, “I do expect to hear from you soon, Muri. I really must discover how you lifted that damned curse."

“You will, Kay, you will. Maybe I'll bring a friend. Thanks, Minister." At his nod Vick stabbed the disconnect button and noticed that the number had disappeared from his recent call history as if it had never been made.

“I won't ask." He said to the skunk as he dug into his pocket to take out one of his cards, the ones with nothing more than a name and a number and nothing else, and held it toward the skunk. Delmos did the same, still looking for all the world like a child who had just found out he was in the presence of someone either very famous, or very dangerous.

Probably both.

“Thank you, detectives. You may report that miss Ashleigh has been found, safe, hale, and healthy. As for the unfortunates in the alley, I will call you to set up an interview so that we can get this cleared up. But not until after the holidays, gentlemen, if that's all right with you."

“More than." Vick said with a nod.

With a nod Kai turned away and then stopped and turned back. “On the other hand, if you wouldn't mind some of your questions answered, I have one of my own. Do you have a department vehicle?"

By the time the gendarmes had arrived, corralled the wandering thralls, interviewed and re-interviewed them with not very veiled threats of arrest, they were released a few hours later despite the skunk's obvious impatience. When the four of them emerged the Museum was closed and night had fully fallen, bringing with it a sharp seasonal bite that cut right through Vick's long coat. Ash clutched her arms about herself and shivered, her clothes clearly not up to withstanding the temperature. The skunk, Kai, showed no reaction other than his fur puffing up slightly, making his robe fill out. There were very few cars left parked in the deck, the detectives' sedan sitting alone and forlorn in a back corner.

Ash and Vick sat up front and their smaller companions sat in back while Vick got them moving. “Where to?" He asked as they navigated to the exit, speaking a bit more loudly than usual to be heard over the roar of the heater fan.

“North of Glen Avery, Lake Barnhardt district." Kai answered from the back seat, his voluminous tail taking up so much space Delmos was relegated to sitting as close to the door as he could lest he be buried by it.

“We'll have to circle around, then, and come down from the north. Skimmers are disallowed through the Glen Avery historic district, which is damn near half the valley up there."

“How long will that take?"

“A couple of hours, depending on traffic through the city. We'll go up and over along the fourth skyway and take the Giantdowns Expressway around."

“All the better, I'll be able to answer as many of your questions as you can fit into that time. I can even show you exactly what happened, though we'd have to stop for that."

Vick looked up at the rear view mirror while they waited at a traffic light. “Show us? How? We saw raw video but it did not answer much, such as why those vamps and their thralls attacked you two."

“I'm an illusionist, Detective Vickkers, showing people is what I do. As for the attack, they were after me. Ash just got raked in because she was there. Wrong place, right time, since she saved my life. You recall the animal, I take it?"

“Yes. Some sort of baboon." He maneuvered into a vehicle lift and set it for the fourth skyway. “You gutted it, somehow."

“With my claws." Kai said with wry humor. “I am a skunk, after all, we're designed to dig. Flesh is far softer than rocky ground."

“Ouch." Delmos winced at the visual, having seen the gruesome act play out on video.

“Indeed, it savaged me pretty badly. It also disrupted my magic. Had Ash not intervened they would have captured me as they intended. Without my magic they would have taken me to their master and he would likely have tried to turn me and, when that failed, he would have killed me."

“How could a vampire fail to turn someone?"

“It's a long story, detective, and not one germane to the crime you're investigating." The elevator stopped and they were discharged onto a feeder for the skyway which was mostly clear of traffic. Vick was able to actually achieve the posted limit and he stuck to it to give them more time as they proceeded around the upper levels of the towering city.

“And how do you know the Minister and her husband?"

Kai chuckled softly. “Another very, very long story. They're personal friends of mine." The way he said friends told Vick that there were levels upon levels to the meaning, far too many for him to have any desire to plumb. “Let's just say that, at one time, I was the Lord General's pupil."

Vick blinked and Delmos shot the skunk a surprised, incredulous stare. Lord Rickkter was known to be one of the most powerful mages in the Empire, perhaps on the planet. If he had taken the skunk as a pupil and into the Services the little furry man was dangerous, indeed, and powerful in both a magic and political sense.

“Okay." Vick drew the word out with a shake of his head as he brought the skimmer in behind a slow moving transport onto the descending exit to the northbound expressway. It circled in a broad loop three times before depositing them onto the highway at the first skyway level. Beyond the city it was also the only skyway level, so far.

“Ask your questions, detective Vickkers, we will answer factually and truthfully, there are no state secrets in that incident I need to protect."

“Vick, Kai. Just call me Vick, and the man beside you is Delmos. He's actually the senior partner here but, well, pedomorph and all." Delmos gave Kai a look and a shrug, dismissing hundreds of years of discrimination against the child-cursed. “He'll be recording this interview and we'll draft our report using that, though we may need to reach out if any other questions arise."

Kai chuffed softly and shook his head, “I do not carry a phone, detective. Vick. I can give you a number to call but they, too, may have problems locating me. Due to the nature of what I must do I must disappear, evading even my own erstwhile allies. There are eyes and ears everywhere, not just the Intelligence corps. The Syndicate and other criminal organizations that have infiltrated every level of society, in the Empire and beyond. Even you two are suspect, I'm sorry."

“Paranoid, much?" Vick asked with a glance at the rear view.

“Very, and justly so. You saw a single vampire whose pride I poked send forty or so mortals and vampires to capture me, because I killed timber poaching crews in the northern forests, beyond the Dikes. Those are the kind of people I deal with, detectives, so you must understand why I purposely make myself difficult to reach."

“Perfectly." Delmos, who had worked undercover for almost fifteen years, answered grimly. He had horror stories of those years, ones he refused to share with anyone, not even his partner and most certainly not his fragile wife. “Why don't you smell, anyway? I don't even get a whiff of fur off of you, nothing. You're just an absence to my sense of smell."

“Again, illusion, but for your nose rather than your eyes. One you should be well thankful for."

Vick groaned and Delmos paled slightly. “So, after you get out, the illusion goes with you and we get a car smelling of skunk?"

Kai laughed and shook his head, “No, no. It will last as long as the scent does, unless someone casts a disenchantment on the car. There won't be a hint that I was even in this vehicle, not even a single stray fur or fingerprint. I've been doing this a while and I'm quite good at masking."

“We've noticed." Vick said with a sigh. “Not a trace at the crime scene, not even a drop of blood. Only paw prints in the viscera of the baboon. We had to follow some convoluted pathways to lead us to that scene on the concourse."

“How did you manage that?"

“Someone with foresight told us where to be and when, when to act and when to wait." He glanced at the mirror, then aside to Ash. “We were investigating your disappearance, Ashleigh, as the primary person of interest. Once we have your statements and corroborate them with the evidence we have you'll be cleared. Or not, I won't make any promises. But what did you do on that street? That's what ended all of those thralls."

Diffidently Ash watched the road ahead, the flicker of lane reflectors racing past the pool of the headlight beams, and explained. She dug into her bag and pulled out a couple of the test wafers, white squares about five centimeters on a side and one centimeter thick. She explained what they were, how they worked, and the ones she had used to amplify the effects of the pepper and skunk spray. The only ones she had left dealt with mana transfer efficiency rather than amplification but got the general gist across to the detectives.

Kai added his insights and observations while Vick drove, the darkness of the Glen Avery area of the valley passing by on their left. There were no street lights, no headlights of skimmer traffic, not even the glow of a traffic signal. The people there existed as a part of the nature they nurtured, hidden among the towering trees that filled the central valley. Those hid even the lights shining from the windows of homes. Only the moonlight on the treetops, which soared tens of meters over either side of the expressway even at its elevation.

After another hour, during which Ash and Kai explained the last few days, omitting certain intimate but unnecessary details, Vick swung onto an exit ramp that would take them into the valley's northern districts. These were mostly farmland and widely scattered villas for the rich and powerful. Again, lights were few and far between, hidden behind forest that still hemmed the roadway closely.

At last they came to a large car park that was situated among widely spaced trees rather than taking over their space. Huge, broad spread branches blotted out the stars and moon above, leaving the park dark save for a few glowing lights hovering several meters above. The lot was quite full, skimmers and growndcars leaving few open parking spots for their department sedan. Vick ignored the need for an open parking area, stopping near the front of a broad building of logs at the far end of the lot. As they approached the management building the lights slowly clustered over the car, bathing it in a warm illumination that was bright enough to see easily rather than being blinding. Vick settled the car onto its skids and powered down the turbines. As they got out each acquired one of the hovering mage lights that parked itself a couple of meters above each of them.

The cold here was not as sharply biting as it had been in the garage and no breeze stirred, whatever wind there was dampened to quiet stillness by the hundred and more meter tall trees towering overhead. Ash still did not express any enjoyment of the slightly warmer air, clutching herself and moving hastily toward the building.

“Thank you for the ride, detectives. From here we'll make our own way." Kai said as they mounted the broad front porch of the park management building. “I will make contact with one of you, likely in the next week, two at most, and set up a place where I can make a formal statement. Will Ash need to be present for that?"

“We would appreciate it if she was, yes." Vick said with a nod, feeling ill at ease in the silence of the forest but for the drip of dew from tree branches. Not even the spell lights gave a sound. The silence was eerie, an unsettling weight that sent shivers up his spine that had nothing to do with the cold.

He was too used to the city, he mused, used to its ceaseless noise that could not be escaped even in the security of his apartment. Places like this were for other people, not him.

“Then we will be there, Vick, Delmos. Until then, enjoy your holidays. Midnight should be passing soon, and you should be with your loved ones, not your shift partner." Kai nodded to each of them and then bowed deeply, hands clasped before his breast, lush tail plumeing up behind him in an easy, graceful curve. With that he turned and pushed open the door to the carpark office, lights glowing to life within. His light did not accompany him, gliding silently upwards to join the cluster above.

Ash spared them only a glance and a brief parting wave before darting through the open door and into the safe warmth of the building. Vick and Delmos turned back toward their sedan, a pair of lights following above. Several remained over the car so it was not difficult to find.

“We are going to catch so much hell for not bringing them in." Delmos observed as the turbines whined to life, lifting the car and turning it toward the exit.

“You recorded that phone call?"

“Of course I did." Delmos held up the small recorder he carried in his breast pocket. “Filmed it, too. I never turned it off once we left the cafe."

“It wasn't on while we were in there?" Vick asked with a sideways glance and lift of his brow. All of the evidence they had of the vampire Helen's assistance was now nothing more than hearsay. “How are we going to explain that?"

“Easy." Delmos said as he fished something out of his jacket pocket; a receipt. “We were following a lead, the one Brightleaf gave us, and stopped in at the cafe for a spot of lunch. And then all hell broke loose. Done, and done."

Vick snorted a laugh, accelerating onto the roadway that would take them back to the southbound expressway. “Cagey, Del, cagey. I'll roll with it. But, honestly, are you going to do a damn with the report tomorrow?"

“Not a lick." Delmos nodded and stretched, yawning hugely. “I won't even think badge until Monday morning. You?"

Vick activated the sedan's auto drive function and pushed his seat back with a yawn of his own. “Not a damn." Leaning back in their seats the two detectives caught a catnap while the sedan carried them back to the towering spires of Metamor City only occasionally glimpsed through the tree canopy along the road.

Kai walked across the empty, silent lobby to the receptionist's desk, looking around at the displays of souvenirs, maps, and other knick-knacks that populated the space. As he approached a door opened somewhere with a soft swish of weather stripping across tile. A squirrel stepped through an archway behind the desk, yawning hugely, their tail flicking as they peered at the two late comers. “Good evening." It said with a slight lisp, whiskers twitching as it sucked the prominent teeth behind bifurcated lips. “A bit late, but we do have a few floatcarts still available. Where will you be going?" Ash decided the squirrel was male, for the simple lack of any apparent breasts and the ever so slight masculine edge to their chittering speech.

“Villa de la Moufette Blanche." Kai said, attracting the squirrel's gaze, which had fixed on Ash. Being the taller of the two he had, apparently, assumed her to be the adult in the situation. The squirrel's brows, defined simply by being slightly more furry than the rest of his head, lifted.

“Ah, indeed, as I would have assumed." He did not move, shifting his dark gaze from Ash to Kai and back expectantly. What was the name of that color, Ash wondered, like the pale hues of earth aspected mana? She would have to learn how to identify colors, and soon, now that she could see them the way normal people did. It would help her Sight, too, being able to identify mana by color and its association with other, similarly colored mana.

“We don't have any money. The Villa will remunerate any costs. We lost our property to a mugging in the city, so what we're now wearing is all we have." Kai said at length, waving a hand to take in the robe he wore. “Unless you would like my clothing as surety?" It was meant as humor but Ash saw the squirrel's face scrunch up in an expression she could only assume was unpleasant, his tail bushing and twitching spastically behind him. Another thing for her to learn; body language.

“No." The squirrel shook his head rapidly, tail bobbing up and down in agitation. “No, sir, that will not be necessary. The Villa is punctual in returning the carts their members use, I'm sure it will be fine."

The squirrel led them down a side passage populated with paintings and photographs of the valley and its prominent features along the walls and free-standing pillars. Some of them moved as they passed, others gave an illusion of depth, as if walking past a window. Still more were full illusions or holograms hovering in the center of the passage. They were led into a room overlooking a deep ravine festooned with moon lit vines and night blooming flowers, a closed concessions stand along the back wall. A couple more passages, each a small museum of Glen Avery and its surrounding lands, and down a flight of stairs brought them to a wide garage. Ten or so small, roughly flat shapes with benches or seats were parked along one wall though there was space for perhaps a hundred. Some of them had no concession to seating, just flat rectangles several centimeters thick sitting on the floor. All of them shone with several enchantments to Ash's Sight, all of them effectively identical but for the choice of seating. A few were larger and had several seats.

“You may use any of them, sir, ma'am. All are fully charged and will be more than sufficient to bring you to the Villa, and back, several times as you might require."

“Thank you, sir." Kai said as he walked over to one with a single bench and stepped up onto it. “Enjoy your rest." He held out a hand and Ash took it, though it was hardly necessary to mount the four centimeter platform. As soon as they had both sat down the platform lifted silently from the floor, turned slightly, and slid smoothly toward the opening in the glass wall of the garage. The squirrel watched them until the door closed before returning to whatever he had been doing when they arrived.

Ash felt no breeze, and thankfully no cold, as the little hovering platform found a path and turned along it, a small illusionary map appearing in the air toward the front as defined solely by the position of the bench. Kai manipulated it with his fingers for a few moments before tapping something, a blinking dot rippling in place for a few seconds before the map expanded, defining a course as a pale line. She reached out to trace the line with her index finger.

“What color is that?" She asked as the forest began to slide past more swiftly without any wind buffeting them. Clearly one of the enchantments created a shield around the thing that the squirrel had called a floatcart.

“Blue." Kai replied, turning his head slightly to look at her using his good eye. The gems on his patch seemed to give him an approximation of sight on that side, but he still preferred to make eye contact using his healthy eye. “You do not know colors?"

Feeling some shame at her ignorance Ash shook her head sadly. He dropped one hand to her leg and patted lightly. “You were a child when it happened, before anyone could teach you. It is quite okay lacking such knowledge." He turned further, holding up his other hand, his palm up. A flickering sphere appeared there. “Red." Fire, pain, anger. The color of the sphere changed. “Yellow." Sunlight, suspicion, caution. “Blue." Life, pleasure, laughter. “Those are the basic three, all others come from them. White." The sphere changed again, looking like one of the glowing orbs that had met them in the parking lot but far brighter. “All colors. And none, black." Once more, this time a hole that hovered above his hand offering nothing, not even the unsettling dark swirl of death mana.

“The numen is black, at least to my Sight, but not black, yet no colors. I see it as lines and threads. It bends around you like illusions others made of a planet's magnetic poles, or a star's. It does not do that around normal people, though they do bend it. When you create your spells the numen shifts, forming complex forms and knots, and then fills with mana, usually too fast to see closely."

“That's impressive. I've never been able to see that deep, not even as deep as the soul, as you can."

“Psis do that, too." She continued, unfocusing her real sight to look deep using her Sight at the numen that bent so sharply around him below the blinding aura that was his soul. “They bend the numen, but without investing it with mana. I saw a telepath and a telekinetic, once, who were at my college. She would send threads of numen to him and they would be linked by that connection, but not permanently. It vibrated, sometimes too powerfully to focus upon, but I never saw them use mana. When he picked things up the numen was wrapped around them, acting like a sort of hand. They didn't know, thinking me blind. Do you think there is a connection with how you work your magic? You said you create your spells and cast them with a thought."

“Without a lot of testing I could not say." Kai shrugged and let the sphere dwindle from his hands. Ash saw the numen knotted there unravel and shift back to its normal arc around him. “You're exploring a field of study I don't think many have had the ability to do. Elves, perhaps, maybe some of the Lutin shamans who, like you, could see into the numen. There have been no such studies that I know of."

The cart began to slow, perceivable only as a general slowing of the progression of the forest around them. Rounding a corner of dense shrubbery brought them to the shore of a wide lake, fifty or so hectares, almost completely surrounded by the bulk of an immense building. The moonlight defined its shape but, in the dark, there was little else to see. The path curved along the lakeshore and continued on but the floatcart stopped just off the path, where a gentle slope of grass led down to the water.

Kai held his hand forward, palm down, and the little illusion returned, this time as a sphere. Ash looked at it with her Sight and saw the complex manaform with tendrils trailing away into the structure of the cart and the dimly perceived shimmer of the shield, but she could not see how the numen interacted with it. He moved his hand forward and the cart turned to float out across the water creating the barest of ripples half a meter below. The vast wings of the building encircling the lake rose up to either side in a gentle slope, here and there windows shining their light out across the surrounding trees.

As they approached the far side, where the building was tallest, a small island came into view, a towering statue of white, glowing in the moonlight, upon its center. As they got closer Ash could see that it was an intricately carved skunk done all in striated stone, white stone, one hand raised toward the heavens, head tilted back to look up. The other hand was low, at her side, palm outward and fingers relaxed. In all it was perhaps fifteen meters tall.

“Le Moufette Blanc." Kai said softly as the cart slowed to a stop ten meters from the edge of the small island. Ash could see that a bridge extended from the island to the shore roughly in the center of the lawn leading up to the large building. Another building sat huddled in its shadow, small and unimposing in comparison but still quite large. A single steady light shone on the porch of the smaller building which she saw also had wings, like the larger one, the cupped shape facing the water.

“Who was that?" She asked, turning her gaze back toward the towering statue of a skunk. The curves hinted that it was female, but the cut of the carved clothing was nothing she could recognise, at least with her eyes. Her fingertips might have told her more, but probably not at such a scale. “She's beautiful." Both as a skunk and as a female.

“Kozaithy, my wife." Kai said quietly as he, too, gazed up at the majestic sculpture. “It was created some years after her passing, twelve centuries ago, by those who knew her best and loved her; friends and family." He sighed and urged the cart into motion once again. “I knew her but seven years before my first sleep. They knew her for another century more. They knew her far, far longer than I, and I have ever been jealous of the time they knew my treasure."

The hovering platform slid smoothly from the water up onto the lawn sheltered in the shadow of the two buildings, coming to a stop at the foot of the porch. Kai stood as it settled softly onto the grass and he stepped off. Ash joined him and reached down to grasp his hand. “What is this place?"

Kai looked from the far smaller building, framed mostly of stout timbers with wooden shingles forming the walls, to her. “My home; my first true home. This is the Villa de la Moufette Blanc." He waved his free hand toward the hulking shadow that encircled the smaller building and much of the lake. “That is the Chateau of the same name, where my supporters live. No one lives in the Villa but me." He squeezed her hand gently and mounted the stairs to the porch. When he reached the door he laid his free hand against it for a few moments, his numen flowing outward into the door and the building followed almost instantly by a rush of mana.

Lights appeared softly in the windows and the door opened outward without being pulled, revealing a warm, homey interior receiving area. A chandelier hung from a high vaulted ceiling, soft glowing mage lights hanging among its crystals to fill the room with an inviting light. The smell of wood and polish tickled her nose but no dust. While he might be the only one to live in the building it was obvious that others put a great deal of effort into keeping it utterly spotless.

“The Baron Avery gave me these lands shortly after the end of the last great campaign by the dark wizard in the north. I turned it into my home, and my school. I taught here for some years before traveling south with Artela, and then again after I returned, and returned again after being rescued from the dark wizard." He said as he walked across the receiving room toward a flight of broad stairs leading to the second floor. The wood did not creak under their feet, feeling as steady as rock but with that subtle give that only wood could offer. “They were passed down through my line for many generations, lost to them a couple of times, fell into neglect only to be reclaimed again when I awoke and learned of it." At the top of the stairs he turned left where the wall only held a single door which he pushed open. “Since the thirteenth century it has been kept and maintained by my adherents, those under the geas of my holdings."

Beyond the door was a large room, not vast but not small. A single large canopy bed dominated the wall to one side, with windows to either side of it. The opposite wall faced the lake and was almost entirely window with what looked like a small balcony beyond. A dresser and two armoires took up the wall opposite the door. In all it looked warm and inviting, the bed most of all after such a long and exhausting day. Kai did not slow as they entered the room, pushing the door closed with one foot.

“They will let us sleep in." He said as he untied the sash of his robe and shrugged out of it, revealing nothing beneath but his fur. A striking pattern of white stripes on a black form. His muzzle and cheek ruffs were black, as was his neck, a slender stripe of white beginning just behind the black pad of his nose and running up between his eyes before widening across the top of his head, giving him a thick ruff of white that continued down his neck, splitting into two broad stripes at the nape of his neck. The two stripes continued down either side of his back, forward slightly around to his sides, rejoining just above his tail continuing down most of its length before fading into the last third which was a marbling of both colors, each distinct.

When he turned around she saw that his front was an unrelieved black but for a single slash of white at the hollow of his throat. Her eyes naturally traveled downward, the corners of her mouth twitching up in a warm smile when she found that the fur of his crotch was too thick to offer more than a suggestion of his sheath, black concealed against black. Kai noticed her stare with a smile as walked over to slide his hands around her waist and looked up. “I think we should both sleep, dear. Tomorrow is going to be a hectic day, for both of us." Releasing his brief embrace he reached up to begin undoing the buttons of her uncomfortable blouse.

Ash merely stood there, mute, watching as he slowly plucked loose each button, not stopping at the bottom of her shirt as he unfastened the stays of her slacks. His hands slipped between the fabric and her skin, claws and coarse pads sending tingles of thrill racing up her spine and directly to her loins. She felt the fluttering tension between her legs, the tightness that drew upward as her muscles clenched. Her slacks were around her ankles with an easy downward push of his hands, falling once past her hips and thighs. He then reached up to slip the blouse back over her shoulders, letting it fall as well, heedless that he was cluttering the immaculately clean floor with her cast off clothing.

His hands slid down her arm and one caught her hand, drawing her toward the bed. “Come, dear, that bed looks a great deal more inviting than the cot ever did." He led her over to the bed, the curtains already drawn and secured to the posts with sashes.

Oh but it was soft; a downy duvet over smooth cotton blankets and decadent sheets whose thread count she could not imagine. He slid up onto the mattress and she followed, her eyelids suddenly feeling as if they were holding up her entire body weight. She yawned hugely and slipped under the covers, her entire body atlight with the sheer, wonderful feeling of the delightfully soft fabric and yielding mattress. She thought, briefly, about tossing her bra and panties but discounted that as simply too much effort. Reaching out she drew Kai close, rolling onto her side and pulling his warm furry weight back against her, bowing her head to press her nose into his scentless fur.

She was insensible to the world within minutes.

(nothing follows. end)