Chapter 38: Shadows (Patreon)

This chapter will be posted next week on Spacebattles. Chapter 37 is going up there shortly after this, so make sure you read that one first. From this point on, all Well Traveled chapters will be posted here a week early. 

Chapter 38: Shadows 

At Babette’s smile, Movarth lunged at me again. This time, his attack was uncontrolled. He wanted to pen me in. I gave him a long gash on his neck for the trouble, spinning away.

But no counter attack came.

Movarth hissed as we slid away from each other. “Babette! What is the meaning of this?!” 

My gaze snapped to the balcony. Babette and one of the female vampires still remained standing, the other had slumped over. No, I realized, the second woman had put a knife through her neck. As I watched, she ripped it out, sending body and head falling into the cavern.

“You haven’t been paying attention to current events, Movarth.” The woman said. She licked the blood from the knife, sensuously. Placing it at her collar, she split the leather armor, revealing a low cut set of robes beneath. Red and black, with the same black handprint adorning the front.

Movarth spit. “Dark Brothers. Didn’t the damn empire kill you two a man?”

“To a woman actually!” Babette volunteered, pointing to her companion. “As for me, well…” In a heartbeat, her entire demeanor changed, all traces of adulthood vanishing behind her childish visage. “I-I w-w-was kidnapped from Falkreath, sir. T-the elf lady said… said I was going to be baiiiiit!” She punctuated her sentence by bursting into tears.

And then the child was gone and the vampire returned. “It’s been fun actually, as much as I miss Astrid.” Babette shrugged. “But when the Night Mother herself says Harkon needs to die, well…”

“You traitor,” Movarth said, baring his fangs. His eyes tracked to the other woman as I watched the byplay. “Then you… are the Listener.”

The woman flicked her long blond hair over her shoulder with a gesture of practiced disdain. “At your service, pitiful leech.”

With a Roar Movarth threw himself into the air, great sword first.

“FUS RO DAH!”

The sound hit me like a physical blow. I staggered back, even as Movarth crashed into the far wall. I felt my magic rattling in my chest, my thoughts echoing around a space far too large. My eyes blinked involuntarily, and for an instant I glimpsed something grander than the cave. I saw the fabric of reality spread out like a tapestry, all the colors of mana and more, gyrating to a song that was just beyond my hearing, dancing with figures just beyond my sight.

And then it was gone, and I was in the dirty cave again as Movarth and I both levered ourselves upright.

“Shall we kill him, Listener?” Babette asked, clapping her hands. “Oh, it’s been an age since I’ve drained a master vampire! Surely only Harkon himself could taste sweeter.”

The woman laughed, it was a low and sultry sound, as if she wasn’t contemplating murder. “I hardly see the point. Let the girl try first. If she loses than he’ll be properly softened up for you.”

“Mmmm, you’re no fun at all.”

“Really? I think watching them will be great fun.”

My eyes flicked back and forth from the women to Movarth. He was still glaring at them, even as the two continued to banter.

“You’re that type of person? Disgusting.”

The Listener laughed. “Did I ever tell you how I passed Astrid’s little test?”

“No, but I do know it made her quite irate.”

Movarth started to move in their direction. Without looking, the listener swept her hand out, and a line of runes flickered into existence around the passageway. With a glance I could tell that they were explosive. Two blue mana for an ice trap. 

“Well she did the whole, you owe us a life bit. You know, that old hat.”

Babette giggled, “Did she really?”

“Yes so, I actually untied them all, left the bags on their heads though. And then—”

“You didn’t”

“I did.”

Slowly, I tuned out their conversation and turned back to the third vampire in the room. He glared at the women for a moment more, before turning his gaze to me.

He looked down his nose imperiously, “Whatever quarrel you had with me, human, it’s clear we have a greater foe,” he said.

I made a show of looking confused. “…What do you mean?”

He gestured, “You cannot be so foolish to think that they will let you live after this. Regardless of the outcome of our conflict, if we fight, you are destined to die here.” I tilted my head at that, frowning. It was true that I had no knowledge of the two in the passageway.

I lifted a finger and blasted him into the wall. He gasped, armor black where my lightning bolt had struck. I leapt; he rolled. The tip of my rapier chimed as it dug into the stone wall. His sword hissed through the air, I ducked.

That wall would not be thanking us later.

Movarth stumbled back and I followed, step for step. This close, his sword was little more than a weighted hilt, while my rapier could still find the gaps in his armor.

A mailed fist whistled past my head. I toke that moment to drive a blade through his opposite wrist. He screamed. The great sword hit the ground in the same moment I kicked the man across the room. Blade and armor rang in unison.

Movarth groaned, clutching his mangled hand. Another drain spell, another counter. I gave him a cut under his shoulder as he rolled away. “You bitch!” He roared. I caught the haymaker on my hilt, then put another gash in his neck in lieu of a reply.

Step by step, inch by inch, cut by cut, I walked him backwards. Without his weapon, devoid of his magic, Movarth was nothing more than a particularly ugly turtle. I took my time prying him out of his shell.

Half a minute later, he dropped to the ground with a gurgle as I pulled my rapier from his eye.

I started to turn, only for two blades to bury themselves in my back. I stumbled as one of them landed on me. A child. Babette

With a flick, I reversed my rapier and plunged it up through my stomach. I was rewarded with a hiss of pain as the weight vanished. The daggers remained, digging deeper as I rolled to the side on instinct. Lightning tore through the space I just occupied. My vision blurred for a second, before snapping back. Poison, but quickly purged.

I’m not ashamed to say that I scuttled behind the nearest pillar, ripping the weapons from my body as I went to work repairing the damage.

“Oooh, Babette, she got you!” 

“Just a flesh wound, dear.”

The taller one cackled.

“Not even giving me a chance to rest?” I called out. 

They both laughed in response. “What do you take me for?” Babette said. From her voice, it sounded like she was moving, but I couldn’t hear any footsteps. 

“A child!”

There was another hiss, this time one of rage. I barely dropped out of the way in time. Two more daggers crisscrossed the space where my throat had been, screeching against the stone.

We crossed steel for maybe a second before I had to jump away from another spell. “Besides,” I said, slipping away with the help of another counterspell. “I thought we were on the same side!”

The Listener blocked my return lighting on a glowing shield of light. “The Night Mother said there would be two targets here,” she said with a shrug. “Nothing personal girl.”

Twin daggers cut across the back of my legs. I cursed, jumping over the follow up and planting a foot on Babette’s head. She didn’t even make a sound as her boots—her boots—skid across the stone. Fuck, enchantments. I couldn’t rely on my senses to track them, and after getting hamstrung I was relying on my power as a workaround. Right now I could force the tendons to bond again, hold them with quickly changing muscles cells. Too many more hits like that and I’d be a dead woman.

Walking was looking more and more attractive with every passing second.

Of course, being distracted and air born, I couldn’t dodge the twin spears of ice that stabbed into me. 

I fell to the ground, rolling with the momentum. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Babette dash out of the shadows. Her fanged grin glinted in the darkness. Three steps away. Then two.

Adrammelech met her on the last step.

I saw the surprise on her face as my summon caught her with a bone breaking punch. With a roar, he sent her flying across the room, shattering the far set of shelves. A blast of fire followed in her wake. 

I rolled out from behind Adrammelech, thinking that the other woman would be distracted. Instead, I was barely able to counter a massive spell that she fired as soon as I was in sight. “A dragon!” she shouted, eyes gleeful. She pouted when her next few spells only fizzled. “You’re no fun at all,” she said. She crouched down, and with the slightest hint of magic, vanished from sight. 

On the other side of the room, Babette was already pulling herself upright, tossing aside a red bottle that she pulled from god knows where.

It was at that point that I decided to say fuck it. My barrier spell sprang up just in time to send the Listener skidding past me, surprised write plain on her face. It didn’t stop her from dodging my dragon’s follow up. I felt more than saw Babette’s next attack, aborted as she too ran into the resistance of my magic.

Adrammelech unleashed a blast of fire in a circle around us, and both assassins dodged away. After that we all paused. Babette idly mimed through a dagger at me. I started to dodge, but then I felt my barrier activate, pulling her up short. She frowned in annoyance.

The woman, on the other hand, had a completely different reaction.

“Oooo, what spell is that?” she gushed, appearing behind me. I spun, but stabbed nothing but air. “How does it work, tell me tell me!” Her eyes seemed to glow with an unholy fascination, even as she danced away from my attacks. Adrammelech roared again, moving forward.

“Quiet you,” she said. “FUS RO DAH!” 

“Gah!” I stumbled again, as another vision struck me. If possible, it made even less sense this time. I came too as my summon smashed into the wall. Both vampires descended on him, so I dismissed the mana binding him before they could finish the job.

Babette growled, muttering “keeps denying me a real fight,” or something like that, before the other woman put a hand on her shoulder.

The listener was watching me differently now. Before, from what little I’d noticed, she’d seemed gleeful and laconic in turns. Now though, her expressing was frightening intense. She stalked forward like a tiger, tongue darting out to lick her lips. “That spell,” she said. “It was a new type of summon wasn’t it?”

“Oh joy,” Babette murdered in the background. “Now you’ve got her interested.”

“It was wasn’t it!” the woman said, her smile growing louder. I brandished my weapon at her, but she seemed not to notice even as she ducked my strikes. “How does it work… hmmm.” She stepped back, taking a breath. I tensed, only for it to come to nothing once again. No more weird voice magic.

“Oooohh…” she rubbed her hands together, shivering. “Babette, have you ever seen anything like this? I can’t even see a physical effect, but it’s still there.” Her voice made me shiver, and not in a good way.

Babette sighed. “No. Can we just find a way to kill her already?”

“But then I wouldn’t figure out how it worked!” the woman whined.

“The Night Mother said to kill her.”

A shrug. “I’m the Listener. Mother can have Cicero shove it up her desiccated anus.”

Babette and I both made a face at that.

“I wonder…” the woman started. The moved forward, once again. I waited, readying myself to strike the moment the effect of my enchantment took hold. Then suddenly she was right in front of me, arms wrapping around my shoulders. I froze up as she pulled him into an embrace, wrapping a leg around my own. “Oh I see,” she whispered. “So that’s how it works…” her fingers began digging into my skin.

I panicked. I started a Walk.

In the last instant before I vanished into the Blind Eternities, I saw the woman throw herself backwards watching me with a hungry expression on her face.