Midnight Meeting [Rhia]

The slightly taller woman really couldn’t blame the little psycho for not knowing if her Caster had been used. Honestly, even I don’t really know what the effect will look like, the text just called it an eraser, or something of a similar nature… ancient synonyms are hard!  I guess it also mentioned something about being at range and something about a goat in a hill’s shadow and the back of the moon, it was mostly nonsense.  The writer was probably trying to be poetic with the idioms of the time.  The jerk probably thought those idioms would last for all eternity, just like their culture.  Take that ancient dead person from a long forgotten culture, modern society wins.  In her distraction Rhia had been passed by the psycho, who seemed to be single mindedly walking deeper into the house.

The caped redhead decided a light run was in order to catch up, best to not be too far behind.  She caught up in the hall just outside the basement door.   Nothing in this place looked like it had been touched recently, though with the door open and windows broken any footprints in the dirt would have likely been smoothed over, I wonder if the little psycho noticed? She could have asked in any manner of ways that would have seemed intelligent or from a position of expertise, being a game tracker, this is something Rhia did have knowledge on. ”Hey, you notice there’s no footprints, I bet it’s from the wind and all, smoothes out the dust and stuff.” she spoke only loud enough for the little girl and doll to hea and using only very specifically chosen words that she definitely meant to use and not the first thing that spilled out.  Not that it mattered at this point.

The basement was laid out just as her more detailed drawing had said, and right where it designated a vault there was a safe.  ”Oh look, the vault is a safe, these documents are really inconsistent about what is and isn’t accurate.  I might need to ask after the poster for this job.” At this point Rhia was pretty used to the short way her little companion formed sentences, and the gentle pat on the back reaffirmed the growing trust the psycho must have in her.  ”On it, just need to change loads.”  Rhia widened her stance with her hands on her hips, she drew her Caster, spun the barrel to the side clipping a shell on her belt, as the shell lept from it’s loop, her thumb actuated the breach lock ejecting the Ice bolt shell, she snatched both out of the air with one swipe and in the same motion raised her Caster up, now counter spinning.  The new shell chambered, she took a moment to make sure it was continual flame and then actuated the breach to lock it up.  ”It’s small enough, I'll just remove the whole door.  You might want to turn away until the sound stops, melting metal can get really bright.”

The only woman there with a fashionable cape removed a pair of dark goggles from her pack and slid them over her eyes with one hand then placed the Caster on the door seam, angled it outward and triggered the shell. She traced the door seam and made short work of it, at the end the door just fell to the floor.  Inside was just a single piece of paper with large text. ‘You’re too late! It’s MINE now!’ the whole thing was underlined three times, and mine was underlined an additional three times and there were many, many more exclamation points.  Under the text was a little doodle, but Rhia didn’t like looking at it so she ignored it.

”You’re right, no horn, just... This.”  The sound of defeat in her voice was impossible to miss.  It really looks like she failed her first official job with the Silver Wolves.  Not that it was her fault, the job wasn’t completable by anyone, She’s just the unlucky one who took the job.  Not that any of that reasoning mattered, she was still upset.  She picked up the sheet of paper and handed it to the little girl.  ”Looks like a dead end to me.” she tried to force herself to sound a bit more normal, but came off flat.

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No, Saiko had not paid attention to the dust or footprints or the like. She was not a detective, she was a necromancer. The living and dead were one thing, everything else she tended to not notice the fine details. Really, given the nature of her abilities they had kind of become a crutch to solving every problem she came across leaving other skills underdeveloped. Even now once the light show was over and the safe open she immediately switched to that skillset when she saw her student give up.

“Hello?” she asked, looking at Rhia like she was the dumbest person ever, “Mayor of Zombieville here? Don’t move.”

Stepping over to Rhia, she began to use her foot to draw a circle in the dust large enough for them both to stand in. It was unlikely to be needed, but Saiko preferred to be safe rather than sorry when summoning unknown spirits. When they had entered, the other spirits in the area had been speaking to her a name, apparently one of the guards who had originally been working here. If anyone had an idea as to what had happened, it would be him.

“Come, Lucien,” she called with her hand stretched out. The shadows at her feet shimmered and extended to the circle she had drawn creating a magical barrier around them. It would not stop most attacks, which is why it was useless in combat, however it would prevent summoned spirits from getting close. If the guard had died traumatically, it was entirely possible that he would lash out at the living. Hence the circle.

Once the magic circle completed, there was a scream that seemed to shake the air around them as the ghost of the guard materialized before them. Honestly Saiko still had no idea why they always screamed when they were summoned, her other ghost summons did not do that. Just when she called one by name like this. After it got the scream out of its system, the ghost immediately calmed down and looked at the two mages.

“What happened?” the necromancer asked.

“Some punk mages ambushed us,” the ghost said, the anger and humiliation evident in his voice. “None of them were strong, but they outnumbered us ten to one. They beat me to death with some makeshift clubs. My partner was not as lucky. Before you ask, no I don’t know who they were, just that they had scorpion tattoos. Looked like guild marks.”

“Which way?”

“They came from the south when they attacked,” the ghost said pointing. “Not sure they went back that way. Hard to see what is happening around you when you are dead.”

“Good enough,” Saiko said before waving her hand. Without a word the ghost vanished, his spirit sent to the other side to rest. A general direction and vague description was not much to work off of. It would have to be enough. Luckily they had a way to search quickly.

“Back to the boat,” she ordered.

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The taller woman’s ears perked as her kind of begrudging mentor spoke. That’s got to be the most personality she’s ever put into a sentence, is she trying to make me feel better?  What kind of psychopath empathises with other people?  Stupid question, the kind that isn’t a psychopath. Rhia stood still as instructed and looked on in confusion at the circle being drawn, her thoughts bled into speech as a result.

”I should probably stop calling her that. I should probably stop…”  The redhead was interrupted by Shisho’s words, what that girl said and did were generally a mystery to Rhia, and talking to nobody was definitely one of those mysteries.  She assumed the worst and closed her eyes.  It almost didn’t matter what the little girl did, it was probably going to be horrifying.  

Rhia jumped back and hit the wall, she was only inches from before and pressed herself firmly against it, she only accidentally remained in the circle, at the sudden scream, she’d have screamed in return if her voice hadn’t been paralyzed in fear.  Her whole body crawled with goosebumps while she tried to remain still, less tried and more was still regardless of any effort otherwise.  The taller woman paid no attention to the conversation next to her, one of the voices had a texture that particularly bothered her.

She could physically feel when the thing left, her whole body gave a heavy shiver of relief, then she opened her eyes.  ”Do we have too?  Don’t answer that, i’ll go.”  The caped wizard secured the note in her hip pouch and carefully stepped over the line drawn in the dust at her feet, nothing happened so she assumed she was safe.  I really don’t want to do this, I know what’s up there and it’s not pretty.  Just  shut it out, and keep focus on the sky or something.  

She took a deep breath and walked with Shisho back to the stairs, just as shabby as she had recalled, though she must have missed the remnants of bodies strewn about on her way down.  Rhia noticed more signs of combat on her way to the foyer from the stairs, a chip in a table here, torn painting there and most obvious yet was a comically large bone sticking out of a boot.  The redhead didn’t really feel anything when she saw it, she chose to ignore that and exited the manor.

As she assumed, right in front of her was a large sailing ship in a state of disrepair, gangplank extended to the ground somehow.  ”Just keep walking Rhia, just keep walking and don’t look at ANYTHING.” she was mostly talking to herself, but her nervous voice easily carried. I’m going to end up on this ship either way, at least awake I can defend myself if I have to. Besides, I have no idea where we are going from here.  The taller of the two women talked to the front of the ship, keeping her eyes on her feet and sat down, doing her level best to not jump at any movements she saw in her peripherals.  

The ship’s crew either understood her discomfort, or were just single minded about their tasks, as they left her be until she could leave.

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Rolling her eyes, Saiko followed Rhia back up the stairs. She still thought the older woman was being overly dramatic about everything, but at least she was no longer trying to avoid the ship and its crew. Not having to knock her student unconscious made lifting off much simpler, and it did not take them long before they were sailing in the direction that the the ghost had indicated.

For a while all they could see were trees and the occasional field, to the point even Saiko was starting to wonder if this was not going to work. That is until she spotted what looked like a keep in the distance. As they approached, it was clear the keep had been abandoned during some long past war, yet despite the decrepit state there was obviously someone living in it. Smoke drifted from fires lit around the keep, and the small dots of people milling around could be seen even from this distance.

From this distance the fog surrounding the ship would make them seem like no more than a cloud so she had them stop while she checked out the keep. Summoning one of her ghost knights, she linked her vision to it and sent it flying away. It took some time to reach the keep from this distance, but when she arrived it became quickly obvious this was the people they were looking for.

Most of them looked fairly young, though still older than Saiko. More like young adults playing at bandits than any actual dark mage guild. Most notably many of them had a scorpion guild mark on display. Breaking the connection, her vision returned back to the ship. Now that their target was confirmed, it was time to take action.

“In that keep,” she said to her student. “Gonna blow up with cannons, then attack. Be ready.”

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