Alchimia Rex

It had taken them weeks of travel through the wilderness, avoiding roads and villages. There could’ve been any number of ways this mission could’ve been carried out. And out of all of them, the Boss had insisted on doing it the most inconvenient way possible. All for the sake of secrecy, that not one villager suspect the feral rush had come to an end a week ago.

Whatever the Boss was planning, it required the city to remain isolated for as long as possible.

Brye wasn’t about to question their orders, nor was she going to take a guess as to why such things were of importance to the Boss. They had a job, and they would do it.

It didn’t mean she thought the current job was any less of a gigantic pile of shit.

She crept up to the coastal city under a pitch-black sky and torrential rain, her muddy boots squishing with each calculated, unhurried step. Furry ears remained high and alert, rotating and filtering out the drumming beat of water splashing all around her. The Nogitsune was searching for any signs of movement. She'd been warned of Orcs stalking the city's farms and walls – turned out that tip was good.

But there had also been mention of Fledgelings, and Brye had not spotted a single one so far. She’d worked with the Boss long enough to know that whenever the information was bad, things would go bad. They’d also been warned they were going up to a Vampire-controlled city, they were to take any and all caution.

It made this glorified messenger delivery mission all the worse.

The first obstacle to enter the city undetected were not the Orcs, the green brutes were practically blind in the darkness. What concerned Brye were the Mousegirl accompanying them everywhere. They were a right pain, twitchy and alert for predators, like herself. Brye could’ve woven an illusion into their minds, but that was just asking for trouble.

So the shitty job became that much more shittier as she quietly followed the walls from a safe distance. Her search for a spot with lax protection took her to the shore, where the stone turned into glass-like smoothness where it met the sea. It was here where the sentries looked the most bored, their eyes fixed mostly northward and to the forest.

She eyed the churning, black-as-coal sea, and a shudder ran through her. Getting in through the water was doable, but it was a desperate move, the kind you save for when all else fails. It also reminded her of Noah and that rat’s damnable attempt to drown Mark.

Not wanting to take a guess as to whether or not there was anything under the waves, she set her eyes on the wall and waited under the miserable rain.

When the change of shift came, the far edge of the wall was left unprotected. Brye took the chance, teleporting to the cusp of the wall and immediately jumping down to the streets on the other side. The expenditure from making a rushed double-jump was a blow to the head, Brye staggered slightly, pulling her cloak tighter against her body and leaning against the nearest wall for support. Her hood ruffled with her ever-shifting ears, looking for any sign that she’d been detected, that danger was on its way.

Nothing, just the drumming of the rain against wood and the heavy splashing steps of the citizens.

The city was awake and kicking, bustling like only a city would after surviving a feral rush. Except Brye knew something worse than just a feral rush had taken place, the city was supposed to be under new management. The scuffle to take over was clear as day all around, blackened stone and caved-in houses. Every survivor was focusing on rebuilding, new wood hastily laid atop holes, improvised doors and windows, all to block out the rain.

It was the same song and dance whenever a city got hit this hard. Things would be fixed quick, then proper reconstruction would follow during the weeks and months after. The richer the sooner it would happen. The downtrodden would be forgotten, left to fend with half-rotting wood that should’ve been replaced years prior.

This was more to Brye’s tune, the street was where she could more easily disappear and go unnoticed. The safety of the bustling streets gave her time to think, and notice that there was not one Vampire or Fledgling in sight. Again that sense of danger prickled at her. Had the Boss gone running for the Tangi’s call? She didn’t know, the man was always in control of the situation, and if things weren’t going as planned… then it was because the pawns hadn’t been informed of the plan.

She took a quiet moment to discreetly caress her gear as it sat snuggly within her cape and reassess her position. They’d gone over the city map a hundred times over, drilled every potential way out into her skull. Some of it had clearly changed, but her destination couldn’t have changed. The Lord’s mansion sat near the center of the city, once she got there she’d be able to slip the message and make a run for it.

“You feral?”

Two words, growled inches away from her ears.

Brye’s heart forgot to beat for a full second.

All around her she could hear the rain, the steps, the voices, everything. But directly behind her there was a void of sound, an emptiness, a nothing. And that nothing was making the darkness shiver in concerning ways.

How had they sniffed her out this quickly!? She’d slipped in unseen, and she wore enchanted gear that should’ve made her harder still to detect. Nogitsunes were impossible through scrying too, so they must’ve been waiting for her. Had the Boss sold them out?

“N-no,” she whispered under her breath, gripping the sword at her side, her other hand reaching for the metal tube on her left side. If it came down to it, then…

The overwhelming threat lessened, the shadows pulled away. The nothingness that’d been standing behind her turned into soft rain dripping against fur and skin.

“Come.”

Brye dared to look over her shoulder. The Nogitsune had seen her fair share of rough people, she’d survived getting dragged through the filthy streets of the capital, Vacia. It was a place where life was always at the edge, one wrong gamble would see your throat cut clean open. In those places veterans of the war ruled, their battered bodies testament to the horrors.

And right now, Brye felt like she was looking at one such nightmare.

The white-haired maiden stood at nearly twice her height. Claws white as bones glinted in the night, each one deep enough it could rip through her with ease. Muscles rippled under sun-kissed skin, her body plagued by scars. There were far too many scars, a veritable roadmap of unending violence and war. No –Brye quickly realized– a roadmap to domination. No one went through that many battles and lived if they hadn’t been the winner in each and every one.

Slowly, carefully, she nodded.

“After you,” Brye muttered, hands tight against her options out of this mess.

The only reason she wasn’t fighting for her life was that the maiden looked… bored. There was a definite tiredness to the way she moved, clearly Brye was a task on a list the giant was not happy to fulfill. Perhaps she would lead the Nogitsune to the Vampires, and Brye would deliver the message. The sooner she was out of here, the better.

Their path took them away from the city center, instead returning to the sound of the crashing sea. All the while, Brye kept every ounce of attention on the giant, how could anyone that size move that quietly? She would’ve expected some spell, but could detect one. And it wasn’t like the maiden could’ve been wearing an enchanted item when the only thing on her person were a set of linen pants that had seen better days.

Their destination was a half-fixed-up dump of a house; fresh wood had been slapped onto a scorched roof. Brye could still smell the smoke, safe from the deluge, she could smell it in the stone. The inside had all the signs of having been hastily emptied out for her presence. It was here that she spotted two new maidens, an Orc that was just as large as the feline, and a Fledgling, eyes red as blood and pale as snow.

It was seeing that last one that almost had Brye breathing a little easy. Though the human that was seated between the two maidens raised questions she wasn’t about to start asking. With the cat monster prowling behind her the message was loud and clear: cross the line and she'd be turned into paste.

Brye descended to a knee, bowing her head. “I have come to deliver a message to Lady Aimes from the Boss.”

The Fledgling twitched at the mention of her name, throwing a sideways glance at the bloke. “The Lady is not available. The maiden you see at my side is, according to Vampire tradition, her niece.” The man spoke with a strained inflection to his voice. “I’m Rick, unfortunately I’m the new Lord of the city, you can give me the message.”

The air got thick, enough to choke on. Brye’s mind raced. Had he been put in charge to allow the Vampires to hide their presence? Or had the Vampires lost and the previous Lord died in the fight? Neither option was good, but the latter was decidedly worse. This “new Lord” would be likelier to see her as a threat to eradicate.

Her mind, cautious, took a little wander, sniffing out the scent of the room. This close to them, she could feel the bond almost like a force, it reeked the room. The three maidens were tied to the human, there was little doubt of that. “My orders were clear, this message is solely for Lady Aimes’ ears.” If the three were bonded to the same human, then the human would be her best way out.

There was no way she’d survive in a fight.

“I’ll have to insist you share the contents of that message.” His tone lowered, the threat clear.

Fuck it.

Brye raised her gaze, meeting his own. The man’s features were forgettable, all save the black eyes and how completely they seemed to swallow her. The Nogitsune didn’t hesitate to take the plunge through and into his mind.

“Rick, don’t!” The Fledgling's warning pierced the air. Too late.

She’d take him hostage, buy herself the precious minutes to get a clear way out.

But the longer she pushed into the blackness of those eyes, the deeper they became.

Brye was suddenly falling, the world around her gone in a swirl of colors. Her landing was rough, appearing upon a rock. All around her a roaring sea thrashed. Head whipping this way and that, she tried to work out what the hell had just happened. Overhead, lightning slashed the sky. The shimmering waves screamed out at her, a wailing chorus of voices that tore through her and into her bones.

The shrieks dug deeper, piercing through her skin, through her mind.

A blink, and she was back in reality, clammy and shivering from head to toe.

She was no longer staring at a human. In his place, a monster, draped in dancing light, with eyes flicking from blue to red to gold to magenta. Every move and every breath of the creature occupying this human-shaped space rippled out through the walls of the burnt house and across the city as a whole.

In all her years, the Nogitsune had found little reason to believe in the preachers of the defunct churches. Not once had she thought there could be such a thing as the divine, of anything that could even approach the term. The closest she’d come to it was the Boss, a man whose presence could be felt all around the kingdom, whose hand could reach out and pluck at anything it so desired.

The thing that sat in front of her was human, yet she felt as if it was only the center of something that spanned the whole city. Something that could reach out and crush her with but a thought.

“Trippy.” He proclaimed in amusement, looking down at his own shimmering hands, the illusion that’d been upon his form already dissipating.

Brye didn’t know what had just happened. Had she used her powers as some way to protect herself from the man’s mind? She didn’t know, she didn’t care. Her hand plunged into her coat and she smashed the metal enchantment that contained the emergency teleportation.

With a cold rush and a feeling of her stomach being turned inside out, she was up in the rain, a hundred meters in the sky, falling fast.

The air whistled past her ears and the smell of the storm, heavy with lighting, filled her nostrils. She tightened her grip on her inner power, yanking herself out of the divedive and popping back into existence right over the sea.

Ice-cold water and utter black swallowed her whole.

One more jump and she was further out, away from the damn city and the things therein.

The sea was the only true escape, anything going through land would’ve been sniffed out. No one would be insane enough to head out in the middle of a storm. But insane options were the only alternative when trying to run from nightmares.

Brye hollered at Mark through the bond, a scream that was as much desperation as command. She fought against the currents, splashing her way and keeping the coastline to her right, mind reaching out in every direction underneath her. With her heart hammering in her chest, the Nogitsune fought against the storm.

If she weren’t near-drowning, she'd have been soaked with fear-sweat. She couldn’t remember the last time a plunge had hit her with such a solid sense of getting slapped by a hundred people at once.

She hoped all of this wasn’t some sick test out of the Boss. That they hadn’t been sent here to become a wall for someone else to break through.

The waves threatened to pull her down, traitorous currents swirling and robbing her of air every time they came crashing upon her. The maiden fought against the waves, hands pushing her hard as she saved her teleportation for when she could not find an easy way out.

Twice she felt like something had attempted to approach her, and twice she’d lashed out with a directed psychic scream. She had no intent to become some feral’s meal, but her attempts to scare them off only kept them right outside where her senses could catch them. For hours they trailed after, waiting for her to exhaust herself against the waves.

Fortunately, both presences left once she got closer to the shore.

Her body screamed for mercy, her mind burning from the strain, her energy all but spent. Brye didn’t know she could feel such a deep satisfaction at hearing the crunch of sand under her feet. Her tail was a mess, her hair a tangled web, some of her clothes had been lost to the storm… but she made it.

“Trouble?”

Mark asked the question with undeserved amusement. The human with fiery hair got himself a growl as Brye dragged herself away from the shore and to proper solid ground. The two maidens flanking him were about as alert as they could, but shared in the enjoyment at seeing the Nogitsune brought low.

“No Vampires, just a huge-ass white cat,” she spat out taking some long gulps out of the offered water-skin. The salt of the sea was not agreeing with her. “Maybe a war-vet, I dunno. There was a human in charge, not a noble, dangerous one. We need to scram.”

Something about her statement had startled her human, the man frowned deeply. “White cat? Two times the size and all muscle? Did you get the man’s name?”

“Rick, or something.” She answered between long gulps, slumping to the ground.

Mark jolted. “He survived.”

“You know him!?” Brye startled. “I was nearly chopped up back there! If you’d known…” Her words died out when she noticed the shared look between the other three. Instincts flared in alarm, and she reached for her sword.

A sword that had been sacrificed to the sea.

Shery tackled her, a mass of gray muscle. The impact drove the air right out of her lungs, Brye lashed out with her claws, finding no purchase against the stone-like skin. Her mind rallied to lash out, but Noah had joined in, her own mind battering against the Nogitsune with relentless force.

“What are you doing!?” Brye cried out, fighting on both ends and losing. She could sense her power faltering and fast. “The Boss-”

Her skull smacked hard against the unforgiving ground, a heavy wallop sending her thoughts careening out of control. A flurry of hands battered her spent body, the other two maidens stripping her of anything and everything that might have been left on her person.

“I quit.”

Mark’s words were an echo, blackness followed.