{"id":133,"date":"2026-10-08T23:49:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T06:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/?p=133"},"modified":"2026-10-08T23:49:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T06:49:38","slug":"scions-of-shadow-007-witches-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/?p=133","title":{"rendered":"Scions of Shadow #007: Witches’ Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chapter 1: Only Minotaur on Earth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Loneliness was an old companion of Rorn son of Rore. He’d spent years traveling human lands with his father, teaching the minotaur way of fighting. It meant months, even seasons where his father was the only other member of his own kind he saw; the only other person who could speak the sacred tongue handed down from his divine ancestors. Aching for his cousins and aunts and uncles was an old, familiar pain. One he’d learn to carry long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missing his father was a new, rawer pain. One that was proving much harder for the massive young man to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’d been thinking about it. Since his mother died, nine years ago now, the longest he’d gone without seeing his father was three days, when he’d accompanied that Urish princeling on that dragon hunt. That had been a little hard, but at least he’d chosen it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creeping agony of the past six weeks were none of his doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One minute, he’d been in a field gathering the flowers he’d heard Gorrmoo liked. The next, he was in a crowded indoor plaza surrounded by strange-looking humans. The wizard who’d obviously summoned him along with (two other creatures) had ordered him to hurt the other humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’d hurt the wizard instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one he’d spoken to since that cursed afternoon had any idea what he was, where he was from, or how it was possible he’d gotten here. He wasn’t the first minotaur on this world\u2014which the locals also called “Earth”\u2014just the first that wasn’t some sort of human-eating abomination. Children of Minos and Taura like himself couldn’t even eat meat, let alone human flesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was actually worse than it sounded. He’d spoken with what had seemed like quite powerful mages, and every spell they could think to cast kept telling them the same thing: it was impossible for Rorn to have been summoned to this world the way he was. So even though they wanted to help, they couldn’t. They were very sorry, but he was trapped here. Not even death was going to free him; instead of his soul returning to Minos and Taura, it would pass through the other worlds of this Earth, the same as any other person that died here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As bad as it was, it could have been worse. This world’s English was close enough to the Trade Tongue\u2014despite all the latter’s desperate and conflicting influences\u2014that he could mostly talk to people. He’d made some friends; found a family to take him in and provide him with food, shelter and clothing. They tried to make him feel welcome in this strange, strange world; but they didn’t get it. Not really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They’d found a place for him; on a team of young super heroes called the Scions of Shadow. He’d never quite gotten a proper explanation for what exactly a “super hero” was, although apparently his divine gifts of strength, speed, and toughness made him one. Although magic and divine gifts didn\u2019t seem to be a requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Scions of Shadow had four members, including Rorn himself. Luna had her Shadow Magic, Pandora her armor and whatever technopathy was, but the youngest member of the team, the one whose family had taken Rorn in, had no magic to call her own. At least if you didn’t count the multi-purpose spell-device called a \u201cphone.\u201d That hardly made her special in this strange, strange place. She had borrowed magic arrows from an older heroine named Artemis, and apparently was enough to be considered a super heroine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota was the reason he’d come into the towering buildings of Tranquility City proper today. She’d done well on some exam at her school (Rorn had given up trying to understand how that worked), and had been promised money to see some anime cartoon movie in a special theater inside the wall-less city. Given the events of the previous week, her brother understandably didn’t want her wandering about the city on her own. Rorn had no interest in sitting through a multiple hour anime cartoon movie in a language he didn’t speak, subtitled via text he couldn’t read, and Dakota’s brother had no interest in buying a second of the tickets. So he’d ridden the train into the city with Dakota, walked her to the theater, and wandered over to nearby Anomaly Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of all thing things Rorn didn’t understand about this world, Anomaly Park was the one that made the least sense. Every part of it put the minotaur on edge. Firstly, “parks” were something he could not make any sense of. He’d been to pleasure gardens before, even helped his father teach fighting in some. But those were in the private residences of the kind of people who could afford to hire a minotaur combat instructor. Governments didn’t just build and maintain such things while not allowing for the grazing of common animals or the growing of crops. What would even be the point of such things? Yes, it seemed nice, but human governments were rarely that kind, even to their own people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that was nothing compared to the Anomaly that gave this particular park it’s name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visually, it looked like the air had been hit by something, and cracks spider-webbed out from that central point, leaking blue light. In practice, it was a bit of wild magic that let things from other worlds seep into this one\u2014not only creatures, but unpredictable magic, like how it had turned all the water in a nearby building into blood the previous week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one had been able to explain why the city didn’t move, or at least build some sort of dungeon to contain it. Sure the Anomaly drifted a bit; the glowing cracks had been radiating out from a point on the far side of the field it was in six weeks ago. But it didn’t seem to travel far\u2014the Tranquility City government had built a park around it after all. They stationed two of their blue-uniformed police soldiers near it. And that was it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of avoiding this wild magic disaster, people brought their children here to run out their excessive energy. They avoided getting too close to the Anomaly itself, but they didn’t flee the region like a sensible person would, given the nature of wild magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn knew there wasn’t really any chance of another minotaur randomly turning up here. Other creatures had emerged from the Anomaly, sure, but never one of Rorn’s kind. One of the first things the wizards of this world had done when trying to figure out how to send him home was to bring him here. They claimed that the Anomaly had reacted to him as it did to other natives of this realm, which may or may not have been no reaction at all. Rorn hadn’t seen one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was beyond sad that this was still his best option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stared at the glowing blue cracks in reality from a nearby too-small bench, wishing his father was here. The police soldiers seemed to be watching him more closely than they were the cracks. Rorn appreciated why the super heroes of this world seemed to distrust them so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn was as alone as any minotaur had ever been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone was approaching him from behind. Rore would have admonished his son for allowing them to get so close, but what was the point? Rorn doubted even a dwarf could miss the reek of urine that the newcomer carried with them; they weren’t trying to be sneaky. And even if they were a footpad or other ne’er-do-well, willing to ply their trade in front of the police soldiers, it’s not like it mattered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stranger stopped just behind the bench. They waited a moment, admiring either the massive black-furred minotaur or the uncontained, barely-guarded Anomaly before him. “Allo, mintaur<\/em>.” His voice was thick with a Russ Islands accent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That got Rorn to look. The stranger was a large one, just over six human feet tall. He hid his rotund body in a coat that was far to heavy for the spring weather. He had a ragged beard that looked like it would take more than six weeks to grow, although he had been clean shaven when the pair of them had been summoned to this world. Peering out from under the brim of one of this world’s baseball caps was a single eye above a squashed nose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Allo, kyclops<\/em>.” Rorn returned the common Urish greeting. “The Justice Union is still looking for you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cyclops shrugged. “Is the way of things. I not worried. I know things.” He was not projecting hostility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn made a non-committal noise. “They say you tried to eat a child<\/em>.” Rorn spoke Urish. Other than the sacred tongue of his people, it was the language he spoke best; better even than the Trade Tongue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sorry. I not go to Ur.” The cyclops seemed unphased by the accusation\u2014if he even understood it. One thing the Justice Union was sure of was that, if the cyclops summoned alongside him was still in the area, he wasn’t eating any more children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said something in a language Rorn didn’t even recognize. “Don’t know that one. Do you speak Mer<\/em>?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cyclops clicked his tongue. “I know some words. Enough to know you no speak Mer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn’s eyebrow twitched. It was not an unfair assessment of his proficiency with the Sea Tongue. It felt strangely good to be talking to a creature who meant the same thing he did when it said “Ur” and “Mer.” Even if it was a blood-magic wielding cannibal. “I’m Rorn son of Rore. You got a name?” Rorn asked in the Trade Tongue, mostly to prolong the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They call me Tirnys,” the cyclops didn’t quite give a name. In Rorn’s experience, witches tended to be odd about that in ways that wizards weren’t. He didn’t extend a hand to shake; it wasn’t usually a great idea to touch a blood witch. The cyclops turned his eye up towards the nearby Anomaly, holding the brim of his cap low. “So, Rorn. I hear you have some friends. They have knowing how to get us home?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn snorted at that. “Every wizard I’ve spoke to here has said the same thing. There’s no way magic could have brought me here. There best guess is some angry technology device that doesn’t count as magic for some reason.” They had said they were trying to look, but had no idea how to do so, given what they did know. “What about you?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mm. Disappoint.” The cyclops lowered his hat and shook his head. “Spell that bring us here? That spell I know.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Really?” Rorn doubted that Tirnys would still be here, reeking of piss, if he had the means to go home. This had the feel of those innkeepers who always happened to have the exact thing you needed, for an unbelievably low price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Maybe. Maybe not. The spell I know? Is not so good for three at once. It do sneaky tiger no problem. Cyclops? Is hard. Need very fresh blood. But minotaur? The spell I know can no do minotaur. Your kind is too… what is word? Too garge<\/em> for that spell. I could no make it do minotaur.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yeah. That’s what my friends say.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Bah. Too bad. Was hoping they know things.” Tirnys moved around to sit on the other side of the bench, which protested slightly at their considerable combined weight. The bench was just large enough that there was no danger of the two foreigners touching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn didn’t move, but he was watching the foul-smelling creature carefully. Just in case. “So you want to go home too?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Of course. I have wife. She need me. Our son grows his teeth now. What will he bite if father not there?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That caught Rorn’s breath. “I miss my father so much.” Not that minotaurs teethed like humans, dwarves, or, as Rorn was just now learning, cyclopses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He miss you, too. I sure. Father always miss son.” Tirnys’s gaze was distant now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I don’t suppose you have any leads I could point my friends at?” Rorn figured it was worth a shot, even if was a scam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tirnys gave him a long side eye. “Maybe. Maybe no.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What’s that’s supposed to mean?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It means I have bad lead. Likely no reach the ocean.” That got a chuckle out of Rorn. It was an old river-Mer saying that made several hells more sense than the English equivalent “pan out.” That was one of the phrases he could actually say in Mer, even.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is witch. She lives in not in this building, but building on far side of this building. Is tall. You see, da?” When Rorn nodded, Tirnys continued. “I see her sometimes. Go train. Go store buy foods. You know? Around. She sees me too. Give finger, but only as warning. I not yet cursed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ve meet a ton of witches and wizards, and not one has any clue where even to look.” Rorn pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Da, da. This witch different, no? She walks other worlds. I no get close, but I still smell the hells on her. Not like your friends, I think.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn was forced to admit that it wasn’t. One of the members of Team Elemental they’d trained with a few times now talked to the dead, but that was as close as they got walking the Ways, as far as Rorn could see. “We didn’t exactly come through a hell to get here.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mmmm. You sure? You not think dead tyrant take shortcut through some hell to find us?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn hadn’t considered the possibility. The little hell magic he’d observed personally had powerful stenches it would have been hard to miss. Now that he had considered the idea, he had no clue if it was reasonable. “You know, I didn’t kill that guy, right?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What guy?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The one who brought us here. I know I said, ‘Death to Tyrants,’ but I didn’t kill him. I hurt him, but he got away.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Really?” Tirnys turned to look fully at Rorn. His eye was wide with genuine surprise. “I hear minotaurs very vicious, da? Like cyclops, almost.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn smiled at that. “We can be. Sometimes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tirnys returned the smile. “Is good thing, be vicious sometimes.” He nodded. “So we have plan, da?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We do?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yeah. Is good plan. You go talk to this witch I see. Ask nice, who knows. Maybe she tell you something your friends can use. I go look for not-so-dead tyrant, da?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sure. I’ll just go politely go into a witches home and ask her to part with her magical secrets. No big deal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Not big deal for big garge<\/em> minotaur, I think.” There was a great deal of the tricky innkeeper in the cyclops’s smile now. “You very strong. Besides, if she want problem, you do, you know, minotaur things. If she lives, maybe I find her. Do cyclops things. Learn all her secrets. Find us way home. We in this together, friend.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that sounded like a cannibal blood witch’s plan. “Which is why I’m going in by myself.” Rorn couldn’t help but chuckle. This was obviously what the whole scheme had been; the reason Tirnys would risk exposing himself to a member of the Justice Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She would see me coming. Witches no like other witches, da? Not so much with minotaurs. Especially hero minotaurs, da? Besides, you no want to go, no go.” Tirnys shrugged. “I say is maybe bad lead. I have new lead now. But\u2026”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“…the Justice Union has been looking for him too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Da. Maybe I have more luck. I know things, you know?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn took a deep breath, staring directly into a crack in reality that the humans of this world had built a park around. He had to get out of here. He had to see his father again. “I’ll talk to her. Just because it’s not a good lead doesn’t mean I have a better one.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“See? Knew you were smart one.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If she does have information, how will I find you?” Rorn hated how much he wanted to talk to the cyclops again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You no find me. I have trick, remember? I find you. You do minotaur things to the witch, I find you real fast.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If you say so.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I found you today, no?” That, Rorn could not argue with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This witch. Not that building. Building past that building. Is tall, you see. Go in door, takes stairs. Go up four floors, and then turn right. Her door is third on left. If door seems scary, is right door.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You didn’t have this planned out at all, I see.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Eh. I do what I must. My son needs me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 2: In the Witch’s Den<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Rorn son of Rore still hadn’t adjusted to just how much stuff everyone in this world had. Dakota and her brother had to carefully budget everything to make sure they didn’t run out of money for food, but she still had more clothes in her closets than most of the wealthy merchants that had hosted him and his father. In his Earth, locks were relatively rare. Doors could be latched, but you’d have to have a lot of money before you could hire a competent locksmith to install something to keep people out of your home. He hadn’t even considered that he’d need to bypass a lock to get into the old, ill-maintained apartment tower Tirnys had pointed out to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tirnys had that figured it out though. The outer door was propped open with a rock, onto which someone had scratched the Traveler’s glyph for safety. Someone of this world seeing it might it have thought it to be some random lines and a circle, but if you’d been wandering the Westerlands as Rorn and Rore had, you’d immediately knew that someone left this here bidding you think it safe passage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something sat wrong about that. It wasn’t how the glyph was supposed to be used. The Traveler’s glyphs were sacred things, given to the Travelers by the Wanderer, who was neither god nor mage. The glyphs only had power because the people who needed them used them well. They existed to help people, and could only help people if they were used responsibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minotaur stood in the doorway contemplating that stupid rock for perhaps longer than he should. Eventually, he did what he was sure his father would have told him to do. He picked it up, and pressed his thumb into the glyph until he hear a crack. The rock split in two, cutting the glyph into uneven halves. If he looked, he could still see Tirnys’s misuse of the Travel’s glyph, but hopefully, in the incredibly unlikely event someone recognized it, they’d take the damage to the stone around it as evidence that the glyph was not reliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He dropped both parts of the rock outside, and headed to the stairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Tirnys’s direction, he found a door that looked perfectly ordinary, but still set him to clenching his fists. The cyclops had called it a scary door, and now that he was here, Rorn could feel it. Something was pushing on him, trying to spook him. The problem with fear wards like this\u2014which Rorn had felt before\u2014was that they were a terrible idea to use when minotaurs might come around. Rorn’s people didn’t flee when they faced with something frightening. They were the children of Minos and Taura. They charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn took a few calming breaths. And then, as gently as he could, he knocked on the bewitched door. He had time to repeat the breathing exercise before there was any responses. The witch was very luck Rorn was a patient minotaur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without a word, the door opened, but only a small crack. A chain, just above the knob, kept it from opening further. Glaring out through the crack was an elderly woman wearing an elaborately knit shawl. She wore a few oversized rings on her one visible hand. The smell of dried herbs poured out through the cracked door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wizened old woman and the hulking minotaur stared at one other through that crack long enough for it to be rude. Each with a hard look, daring the other to break the silence first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the witch did. “You must be that other-worlder my granddaughter keeps talking about.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Hello,” Rorn managed through clenched teeth. “My name is Rorn, son of Rore.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I just said I knew who you were, idiot.” She gave him a once over, and sniffed the air, as if she’d be able to smell anything over the overpowering odor coming out of her apartment. With an unhappy sigh, she closed the door and clacked her way though the unlatching chain. “Well then. You may as well come in. If what my granddaughter says about you is true, you might be as close to decent as a man can be.” Once the door was open, she stood in it, blocking the way. “Not that I have much reason to trust that child’s judgment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn wasn’t overly eager to cross threshold for reasons that nothing to do with being unwilling to shove the hunched woman aside. “Have I even met this granddaughter of yours?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Did Luna not send you here to try to guilt me into helping?” She stepped aside to allow the towering minotaur past. “I swear that girl even forgets that I was a super villain before I got pardoned.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Luna?” Rorn blurted out. The old, grey-haired woman didn’t look anything like Rorn’s shadow-wielding team mate, but then again she wouldn’t. Luna had been adopted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also had never mentioned that she had a grandmother, let alone one who was once considered a villain. It was probably a good thing. Family of a friend was much more likely to help than a stranger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Get in. You’re letting the warm air out.” Rorn probably wouldn’t have noticed the significant warmth in the apartment if she hadn’t pointed it out. His kind were far less sensitive to temperature than humans, and there were quite a few other things to capture his attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They entered a large sitting room that was completely overstrewn with clutter. There were a half-dozen plush chairs, all but one stacked high with fabric crafts: clothes in various states of assembly. Atop one of the chairs was one of the puffy-sleeved shirts Luna preferred, in her size. There were two looms tucked into opposite corners, the first and second Rorn had seen in this world despite the fact that everyone had so much clothes. There bookshelves stacked atop of each other, overflowing with a combination of books, glass vessels, clay jars, preserved remains of creatures, and a variety of other objects Rorn couldn’t identify. About two-thirds of the tomes were bound like the ones he’d seen his world, but the rest were the cheaper, illustrated paper bindings that seemed more popular here. The floor was scattered with more of the same detritus that lay scattered over the chairs and shelves, but also had a few dishes that looked like they’d been used and left to rot for days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The herbaceous smell was intense. It was setting his hair up. He’d been in herb drying sheds that didn’t smell this intensely, which probably meant it was a consequence of some sort of spell. That was fine. One didn’t walk into a witch’s den unless you were prepared to face hostile magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman, who hadn’t given a name, made her way to the most open chair, stopping briefly to shove a pile of fabric with knitting needles still stuck in it off the chair next to it. A half-finished piece of embroidery still in its hoop remained of the relocated pile. “Sit. Have an emenem.” She offered him a rune-carved silver chalice filled with brightly colored flat spheres from what might have been a table that sat next to both chairs. The way it was so covered in clutter, he couldn’t be sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn gingerly moved the embroidery hoop onto the pile the witch had just made of the chair’s contents before sitting down and taking the chalice. She didn’t react to him treating her property the same way she did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elderly woman popped one of the green spheres into her mouth as Rorn took the chalice from her. He brought it to his muzzle and then shoved it away as he gagged. “I can’t eat that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If you want to be a guest here, we’ll share some candy. Now eat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Look, lady. Even if you’re fine with me vomiting all over this sty, I’m not gonna. There are things I can’t eat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She gave him an offended look, but let the silence draw out between them for a while. “Lady?” she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If Luna told me your name, I forgot it.” That had happened to Rorn before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Men,” she sniffed contemptuously. “Can’t even be bothered to remember the name of the woman you want a favor from.” She shook her said. “My friends call me Victoria, but you can call me Femme Mystic.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Rorn son of Rore,” the minotaur replied, and after a slight hesitation, he offered one his giant hands for her to shake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You said that already, idiot.” She rapped his knuckle with a metal knitting needle, before setting it to the elaborately patterned square she’d picked up. “Now let me guess. You want to know if I have any knowledge of how to send you home?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“More than anything, ma’am.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She turned her attention to her knitting. “Like I told my daughter and that bastard she insists on hanging out with, I don’t know anything remotely helpful to you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn was expecting it, but it still felt like a hand squeezing on his heart. “Please. You have to know something.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“World-walking was never my main branch of magic. And even if it was, no one can banish you to a realm they don’t know. And I’ve never heard of one likes yours.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I mean, are you sure?” Tirnys had said he’d smelt something of their world on her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Of course I’m sure. Your world has elves that breed like humans, yes?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And the only flying machines they make are enchanted boats and carpets and so forth. Not complex machines like the one that flew you to that kaiju?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Who enchants a carpet?” Rorn asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She again slapped his knuckles with her knitting. It was a very foolish thing to attack a minotaur like that, but he didn’t immediately do anything about it. “Answer the question.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yeah. The only flying machines I’ve heard of elves using are enchanted boats.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The sky there’s just as blue as ours, right.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“During the day, the sky here is the same.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That rules out every realm I know of. Now, is there anything else before I kick you out of my home?” her gaze was harsh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn sighed. “I don’t know. You traveled the Ways. Surely you know other witches who do stuff like that I could talk to or something.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victoria’s fingers briefly paused in her knitting for a moment. “Interesting. Who told you I was walking the Ways?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telling her about Tirnys didn’t exactly strike him as good idea. He turned his head from her. “I don’t remember. Someone I met at one of the Justice Union things, I guess.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Hm.” The witch’s gaze grew slightly more intense. Then she spoke a word of unintelligible magic, and tore her knitting clean in two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn’s palms smacked into the arms of his too-small chair, and he felt his back grow rigid. He struggled, but his arms didn’t move from the chair, and his hooves remained affixed to the ground. “What in the hells?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Don’t lie to me in my own house, boy. You really don’t want to know what I’m capable of when I’m angry.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What did you do to me?” Rorn pulled at the chair with his might. He could see his muscles tensing, but they didn’t move. He couldn’t even feel anything pushing down at him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you if you don’t answer my questions, boy. Who told you I was walking the Ways?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of Rorn knew the smart thing to do was just admit it had been Tirnys. But one didn’t hold a minotaur against his will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He changed tactics, and tried to push into the chair with a growl. If he couldn’t pull free of it, perhaps he could break it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn’t budge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I don’t see any geas on you, so you’re just trying to hide something.” Victoria clicked her tongue. “It’s going to take all afternoon to pull the truth out of you, and it won’t be a pleasant experience for you. So save yourself pain and both of us the time, and just tell me whose spreading these stories about me?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The witch was leaning towards him to glare intensely. He tried to lung at her and bite her, but only managed to snap his teeth. His spine remained painfully rigid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A strange buzzing made them both turn their heads to a box built into the wall by the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Of all the inconvenient times,” Victoria let out an annoyed sigh. “I’ll deal with you later.” She moved over to a pile of quilts, and pulled out the bottom one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ll show\u2014” the rest of Rorn’s threat disappeared as the quilted fabric was flung over him. He screamed as loud as he could, and couldn’t even hear himself. A moment later a few more blankets were tossed over him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn clenched his teeth and forced himself to take a deep breath. And then another. Shouting into a silence spell never accomplished everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His father had taught him out to deal with this sort of situation. Magic, as powerful as it was, couldn’t last forever. Even the rocks the gods had made would break if a minotaur pushed on them hard enough. This spell could hold him for now, but with patience he’d exhaust it’s power eventually. He inhaled, and then pushed down on the chair as hard as he could as he slowly exhaled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Who is it?” Victoria’s voice demanded from the other side of the pile of blankets. It was very clear despite the magic silencing him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The voice that replied was familiar to Rorn, even distorted as it was by the electronic machines that captured it. “It’s Princess Aetherium, ma’am. I’m a friend of your granddaughter.” That was what Pandora Smith, the leader of the Scions of Shadow, called herself when she put on her armor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What in the hells was she doing here? No. Breathe in and pull. Breath out and push. The spell will break eventually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ugh, another one? Don’t lie to me, girl.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Alright, fine. I hate your granddaughter immensely, Miss Craft. But not as much as I hate the fact that the bastard that adopted her is forcing me to spend time so much with her.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breath in and pull. Breath out and push. The spell will break eventually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Better. But I’m quite busy, girl, so I’d appreciate it if you left.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m very sorry to bother you, Miss Craft. But I believe I’ve discovered something you’d very much like your daughter and her colleagues not to find out about. I wanted to warn you before anyone else put it together.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victoria Craft let out an infuriated cry. “Every single time,” she muttered to herself. A moment later, the light came back and the elderly woman was looking at him over the pile of blankets. “What is she playing at, boy?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn glared at her, then turned his head towards the box in the wall. “Pandora! Help! She’s got me trapped by some sort of black magic!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The witch swatted his nose with a knitting needle. It wouldn’t have been hard enough to harm human, let alone someone with his supernatural gifts. “The intercom doesn’t work like that, idiot.” Then she raised an eyebrow. “She doesn’t know you’re here, does she?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Rorn did in answer was glare, and push harder on the arms of his chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Interesting. Well. We’ll see what she wants, and then deal with you later.” She tossed the quilt back over his head, and the sound of his grinding teeth suddenly disappeared. He hadn’t realized he was doing that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He forced himself to steady his breathing. Breath in and pull. Breath out and push. The spell will break eventually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 3: Asking Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Princess Aetherium hadn’t existed until after the Femme Mystic had been pardoned and retired; and before that Pandora “Smith” hadn’t paid enough mind to the sort of super villain she’d been to have many preconceptions about the older woman. Obviously she was aware of her\u2014she’d used magic to swap the gender of two Virginia legislators, the mayor of New York State, and Turbofist back before he’d retired. That was the sort of thing that even people who tried to avoid news about cape antics tended to get. But the impression she got was that she was largely unimportant in the greater Cape scene. Someone who showed up, made a bit of mess about her pet social issue, and then disappeared after she was foiled. They never caught her, but that was hardly unique among super villains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The little, ornery old woman who opened the door gave off an entirely different vibe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For starters, elderly Victoria Craft wore matronly layers that would have looked more at home in a woman who was old by the time Pandora had been born. The Femme Mystic, in her youth, was somewhat infamous for engaging in schemes with one or both of her breasts exposed as some sort of commentary on patriarchy. She’d been a hot-headed firebrand, whose greatest weaknesses was her out of control temper, and her inability to go more than four seconds without launching into another lecture. She’d been a witch, sure, and a powerful one at that to accomplish the things she’d done, but not someone who Princess Aetherium was expecting to be deeply afraid of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But looking into her dark eyes through the crack in her door, Pandora’s breath caught. The last time she’d seen that kind of naked malevolence it had been in the face of a rabid alien warrior who was fantasizing about the destruction they’d be able to unleash if Warlord D’jaxx had succeeded in conquering the world. They were angry eyes, yes, but not the unconstrained fury of a firebrand. That was the cold disdain of a woman carefully considering just how inconvenient it would be to hide your body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You came alone?” Victoria said by way of greeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I didn’t tell anyone I was coming, Miss Craft. Omnimind does monitor my location via my phone, but I’ll be able to honestly say I came here asking you to share knowledge about my minotaur teammate\u2019s situation if she asks.” Pandora would have preferred to give out less information. But it seemed a little honesty might be endearing to the old super villain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Femme Mystic looked her up and down. Pandora was in her civilian clothes\u2014a designer blouse and skirt in pinks that fit with the over-sized Louis-Vutton bag she had to carry so she’d have access to her armor and the powers that came with it. The rich clothes would make her stand out in this part of Tranquility City, as opposed the dark black skin that came from being born in south-eastern Africa. Apparently satisfied by what she saw, Victoria nodded, and moved to let the younger woman in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apartment looked less like the den of a powerful witch, and more like the cluttered lair of a particularly crafty hoarder who used way to many herbs. The witch was there in the room, if you looked for it; she had a human skull not quite completely covered by a doily on one book shelf. But Pandora was slightly more taken aback by the fact that there were several garments that matched the distinctive style Luna wore scattered among the other detritus. Was that the secret to why Luna always managed to look so clean? Her witch grandmother gave her enchanted clothing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Have an M&M,” Victoria said as she cleared a chair by tossing its piled contents on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Princess Aetherium hesitated\u2014Femme Mystic had used food to deliver spells before. But ultimately, she took one of the brightly colored candies from the silver chalice with a “Thank you, Miss Craft,” because ultimately, she was an ally, and it was important not to let her think she was afraid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once she bit into the candy she began coughing with regret. An extreme sourness filled her mouth. “Something wrong?” a cruel smile now played at Victoria’s lips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No, Miss Craft,” Pandora coughed. “I just didn’t know Skittles made anything that sour.” There wasn’t the slightest hint of cheap chocolate in the thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They aren’t Skittles. Now, what is it you need to tell me, child? I’m quite busy.” As if to emphasize the point, she picked up a scrap of crochet and began working it without looking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The black super heroine coughed once more before she began. “You know about the attack at the mall where the still-unknown wizard brought Rorn the minotaur into this world, Miss Craft?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I already told my daughter everything I know about that\u2014which was nothing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yes, Miss Craft. But I believe the spell used to disable the cameras was one of yours.” Pandora watched her reaction carefully. She was hoping that the Femme Mystic would object to one of her spells being used by the man who’d cast those spells, and that would be the easiest way to guide the old woman to where Pandora wanted this conversation to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Victoria villainous arched an eyebrow. “You actually believe that, don’t you? Why?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s true that, in your time as Femme Mystic\u2014”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am still Femme Mystic!” There was real venom in the old witch’s voice. “Getting pardoned didn’t change that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora pursed her lips. “In your time as an active villain, no one ever suspected you of having access to spell that so thoroughly shut down cameras like the one the mall attacker used. But thinking about it, a spell like that, especially if wasn’t wielded by an incompetent man, could really make a villain’s career.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The witch let her stew in the cold glare of her hatred for a while longer. “And what does that have to do with me?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Originally, you weren’t one of my suspects, Miss Craft. But when I went digging through the Justice Union archives of unsolved anomalous robberies where security footage was mysteriously absent. Of the eighteen candidates I found, fourteen would have been very conveniently located and timed if Femme Mystic needed an infusion of cash, either to build up for a big piece of activism or needing to rebuild right after she got foiled.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s enough to convince you?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That was enough to get me to go digging through your file, Miss Craft. Truthseeker put some serious effort into trying to catch you backsliding after your pardon. Obviously, there was nothing to find, but from what information she could dig up, you have a lot more money than she could source. She found that suspicions. Doubly so, since you never did seem to be hard up for money when you needed to go big.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The witch’s look of skepticism deepened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The last update to the file related to some significant stock purchases back in March, shortly after the whole mess with, well, my father.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s right. You’re Aetherium Warmonger’s brat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Exactly, Miss Craft. Groomed to be his right hand woman and heir. Trained to think like a villain. Aware of how valuable a secret like that camera-suppressing spell would be. Aware that legitimate business options for you are more limited, given your history. And how you’d leverage that secret knowledge now without endangering the much more pleasant status quo your pardon has given you.” She nodded to the half-completed blouse that was clearly for Luna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In what would would I ever sell a powerful magic secret like that to some idiot man?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You’d never do something like that, Miss Craft. It was one of the reasons I hadn’t considered you. But after I saw the correlation that put you on my radar I realized something. Something that ties this all together nicely. That man was an incompetent buffoon who got nothing nearly as effective out of the magic as you did. Almost as if he’d stolen it from someone and had to go by her notes, rather than getting the ins and out of the spell explained by someone who knew what she was doing.” It wasn’t as neat as Pandora would have liked, but it should be shoving Victoria’s mind down the right path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed the tenor of her malevolence had gone notably less hot as she considered it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The more I thought about it, the more the pieces all started fitting together. Whatever that fiasco at the mall was supposed to accomplish, it wasn’t the act of a careful and reasoned individual. Femme Mystic would never sell anything to a man, especially not a man like that.” Pandora did her best to make the word ‘man’ sound like an insult. “But you also wouldn’t want to sell it to someone likely to come up on the Justice Union’s radar. Technically, there’s nothing illegal in selling spells that don’t hurt people, but Truthseeker and the Mighty Arzan already have it out for you, so if anyone did anything truly heinous with it, you might find out just how much your pardon really lets you get away with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But a lesser power? Especially someone who is enough of a wild talent that people might assume whatever lesser version of your true spell you sold her was her own creation? Especially if that someone had more money than sense? They might seem like a very safe person to sell to. But, someone like that might not do a good enough job protecting her secrets. Assuming, of course, they weren’t planing to betray you all along.” Pandora certainly believed that was the more likely scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Femme Mystic contemplated her guest for a moment, and then asked a very unexpected question. \u201cAnd despite all that looking, the latest things in my Justice Union file are baseless musing about my finances?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs… should there be something else?\u201d Caught off guard by the reaction, Pandora was not prepared for the explosion that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lumpy dark comforter that sat atop an arm chair on her left went flying with a bang. It blocked the young cape\u2019s view. By the time it fell aside, something large, black and furry had knocked Femme Mystic from her chair and was still hulking over her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one imprisons Rorn son of Rore!\u201d the beast bellowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Princess Aetherium froze. She\u2019d withdrawn her heavy crown from her purse, but not gotten it to her head, from which she could unfold her seven-dimensional armor. \u201cRorn?\u201d What in God\u2019s name was her minotaur team mate doing here? And how much had he heard?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, yes,\u201d Femme Mystic sounded unimpressed by the beast holding her to her floor. \u201cWe all see that you have a very big penis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn\u2019s reaction to that was instant, backing off the old woman. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d Pandora demanded. This was supposed to have been secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pushing the large minotaur back with a crocheting needle, the Femme Mystic said, \u201cHe was asking me questions about something not<\/em> in my file. Something a blockheaded male like him would never figure out on his own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minotaur raised a fist as if to strike, but allowed Pandora\u2019s grasp on his elbow to stop him. She wasn\u2019t close to strong enough to hold him back without use of her tractor beams, but he let her hold him back anyway. \u201cRorn! Stop. Tell me what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retired villain spoke first. \u201cHe\u2019s been talking to a witch with nothing to do with the Justice Union.\u201d Rorn\u2019s cow face looked both angry and guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRorn?\u201d Pandora demanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt literally just happened,\u201d he snapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t text–\u201d Pandora began, but paused when it hit her that he was here on his own. The illiterate cow didn\u2019t have<\/em> a cell phone with which to text her. \u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again, Femme Mystic spoke first, \u201cThe witch who\u2019s been watching me the past two weeks. I\u2019ve felt her sneaking around, probing my defenses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat witch?\u201d Truthseeker had checked in on her last Wednesday, observing that she had once again spent the evening watching Hallmark. She hadn\u2019t made any mention of seeing signs of a lurking witch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat I would very much like to know.\u201d Femme Mystic settled back into her chair, pulling up her needlework again. \u201cSo here\u2019s the deal, children. I admit to nothing<\/em>, but I will give you a name and address if you want to see where this line of inquiry leads, if<\/em> you bring me this witch who has been stalking me. She and I need to have words. Here, in my home.\u201d Which was to say in her place of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWords?\u201d the minotaur asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust words.\u201d The old woman gave him a truly vicious smile. \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of her, and we\u2019ll save a lot of time if she understands what\u2019s she truly up against.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn glared at her for a moment before turning his eyes to Pandora. The young cape could predict what was going through his head easily enough. He was in a world he didn\u2019t understand being asked to do something with implications he\u2019d never be able to predict. He wanted some one to tell him he was doing the right thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, the leader of the Scions of Shadows was here. \u201cWe\u2019ll do it, Femme Mystic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 4: Find the Path<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Pandora \u201cSmith\u201d considered her self a reasonable woman who was both slow to anger, and well in control of it when she did have legitimate reason for it (no matter what her therapist said). Yet even she was ready to gouge out his eyes when he told her what he\u2019d know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI pulled a little girl\u2019s hand out of that cyclops\u2019s mouth, Son-of-Rore.\u201d She was speaking through clenched teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two had moved back to the street outside Victoria Craft\u2019s apartment building, and moved half a block away to where a sign proclaimed a bus stop. It was as close as the two could be to inconspicuous in this neighborhood. Rorn was a giant minotaur, but her designer clothes and massive Luis Vutton bag wasn\u2019t that much less out of place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn didn\u2019t meet her eyes when he replied. \u201cI didn\u2019t say we were friends, I said I talked to the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe monster, Son-of-Rore. He eats children. He admitted to wanting to eat me<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t get it\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHold on,\u201d Pandora interrupted. \u201cDakota Lyon is calling me.\u201d Thanks to her technopathy, she didn\u2019t need her phone to vibrate to alert her when it wanted her attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDakota.\u201d Rorn sighed, and stepped away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora retrieved her phone from her purse and held it to her ear. She didn\u2019t need to, but it cut down on the number of people who interrupted her as if she wasn\u2019t on the phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The youngest member of the Scions of Shadows was already in hysterics, talking faster than Pandora had thought it possible. \u201cI-lost-Rorn-He-wasn\u2019t-there-when-I-came-out-of-the-theator-and-I-don\u2019t-know-what-to-do-he\u2019s-lost-or-maybe-something-happened-and-I-don\u2019t-know-what-to-do-and-he-doesn\u2019t-have-a-phone-so-he-could-be-anywhere-and-cannot-look-stuff-up-and-I-don\u2019t-know-what-to-do-and-he\u2019s-going-to-be-so-scared-and-he-gets-angry-when-he-gets-scared-and-I-don\u2019t-know-what-to-do-and-he\u2019s-going-to-make-a-mistake-and-get-into-\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora rolled her eyes. Handing the phone to the minotaur, \u201cRorn, calm the girl down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minotaur arched one eyebrow at her her as he gently took the device to his ear. He half-shouted into the device, like an old man who didn\u2019t really understand how cell phones worked, \u201cDakota. Calm, down Dakota. I\u2019m right here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phone wasn\u2019t on speaker, but one of the perks of technopathy is that you never had to listen to half a conversation on a phone if you didn\u2019t want to. \u201cR-rorn?\u201d Dakota asked. It was clear that she\u2019d been crying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, I\u2019m here with Pandora, at a bus stop a block and a half north of Anomaly Park. The…\u201d he squinted at the bust stop sign. \u201cOne one… six?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeven,\u201d Pandora corrected, technopathically pushing the word through the phone line to Dakota. \u201cDid you just read that sign, Son-of-Rore?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m working on it, okay?\u201d Raising the phone back to his ear and also his voice, he continued, \u201cDoes that one go by the theater?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 117? Yeah. It\u2019s like a five minute walk to the stop. Are you going to come get me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, you should come here. We\u2019ve got a cape thing we could use your help with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora hadn\u2019t realized that he was going to say that in time to technopathically cut her phone\u2019s mic. \u201cWhat are you doing, Son-of-Rorn?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He again held the phone away from his ear. \u201cTirnys didn\u2019t give me a way to contact him, so we\u2019re going to need all the help we can get finding him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDakota can\u2019t keep a secret! Telling her about all this is going to turn Femme Mystic against us. Think, for a God damn second, you stupid cow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a bull!\u201d he snarled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One the phone, Dakota was prattling on about what the mission might be. The speed at which that girl could go from crying to joyous was diagnosible. Keeping her eyes on Rorn and her mouth shut, her voice went over the phone, \u201cJust meet us here as quick as you can, Lyon. Rorn and I have to discuss something.\u201d She ended the call, and held out a hand for her phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSon-of-Rore, do you have any idea what Femme Mystic will do if we betray her trust?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn stared at her for a second. \u201cNo.\u201d He dropped the phone into her well-manicured hand, and then collapsed to sit on the sidewalk. \u201cI don\u2019t know anything. This world makes no sense, and Tirnys is the only person who\u2019s got any chance of understanding me, and I\u2019m going to help that old witch to kill him.\u201d He put his head in his hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not the reaction Pandora was predicting from the constantly yelling young man. She tilted her head for a better view, and confirmed he wasn\u2019t actually crying, but it looked like he might be close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This called for some intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She contemplated her approach for a moment before putting a hand on one furred, muscular shoulder. “Rorn. Look at me.” When he didn’t comply, she softly added. “Look into my eyes, Rorn.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The look he shot her was unfriendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What color are my eyes, Rorn?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yellow? What does that have to do with anything?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were a lovely golden hue, but Pandora managed to not correct him. “Have you seen another human in this world with eyes like this, Rorn?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He thought for moment. “I guess not?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Eyes this color only developed in a small region in South-East Africa, literally on the other side of the world. Almost ten thousand miles away. Only people of that region have them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Then why do you?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She raised an eyebrow. “Because that’s where I was born.” She managed to refrain from adding “idiot.” “Do you know how many people have eyes like this on this continent, Rorn?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What’s a continent?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In three thousand miles, then?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He gave a non-committal shrug. “Three thousand miles is a long, long way.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There’s at most two, depending on where exactly my father is hiding.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Wait, really? There’s not\u2026”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There’s no one. That was the reason my father sent me here. A king wasn’t supposed to consort with a women like my mother, and we weren’t safe anywhere there was more of us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They killed your mother, right?” He looked distant when said that, no doubt thinking about his own mother, who’d also been murdered. It was a look she knew well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yeah. They wanted me dead, too. Tried to kill me, even. But the assassin they hired balked at killing a child.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn replied with a curse word Pandora hadn\u2019t heard before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There’s different reasons why we can’t go home, Rorn, but I do know what it’s like.” She paused for a moment so her next line would hit harder. “Why do you think I’m spending my Saturday following up on clues about how you got here? I am trying to help you for a reason.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Huh. I didn’t think about that.” Rorn seemed generally surprised. “You know, if you weren’t so mean all the time, I might have realized that sooner.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora gave a rueful smile. “If there was anything my mother taught me, Rorn, it was mean girls get what they want.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn turned aside and muttered, \u201cThat\u2019s a lesson you learned a little too well.\u201d He still raised one of his freakish large hands to cover her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora smiled and let the comment slide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the two sat in companionable silence, Pandora reflected that it was a good thing he didn\u2019t ask her what she missed about Galen. She\u2019d lived in America since she was three, and without her mother since she was six. She had no memories of the place, and it had done everything in it\u2019s power to make sure she\u2019d not want to return. Galen had never been her home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was, however, the first black person to ever attend her prestigious boarding school, and still had to pretend to be friends with one of the racist bitches that had tried to get her expelled over that fact (the other had moved to California after someone had sent graphic evidence of her father\u2019s infidelity to his church\u2019s mailing list).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She may not be homesick the way Rorn was, but she was very familiar with feeling alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 5: The Watching Witch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dakota Lyon hadn\u2019t thought to bring her Fletching outfit to the import cinema. She was starting to see why Luna didn\u2019t bother a cape outfit. But then again Luna’s everyday style looked all complicated and cool and Dakota would never look that elegant\u2014or that pretty. Well, when people needed help, they needed help, and the youngest member of the Justice Union would spring into action, even if all she had was her belt pouch and anime shirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the rest of team were waiting for her at the 117 bus stop. The situation didn\u2019t look immediately dire, with Rorn and Pandora (also in her civvies, but her civvies were a lot a lot more fashionable) standing standing closer than they usually did. Rorn even looked a bit less mopey than he had when he left her at the import cinema, which was good. Behind them there were some local children giving the two a wide berth. \u201cWhere\u2019s Luna?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello to you too, Lyon.\u201d Pandora was still as prickly as ever, at least. \u201cFemme Mystic asked us to look into a witch who\u2019s been spying on her. She\u2019d prefer her family not get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut,\u201d Dakota took a moment to sort out her thoughts. \u201cBut Femme Mystic is a villain? Why are we\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe promised to share what she knows about the magic used to bring me here.\u201d Rorn clenched and clenched his fist at his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhich the Professors Hellsing already asked her about,” Pandora added a shade to quickly. “She knows something she doesn\u2019t want to admit to her family, and she\u2019s agreed to share it on the condition we not share where we got the tip. Understand, Lyon?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI… Won\u2019t Truthseeker figure it out really quick? I mean, you\u2019ve complained about the Union monitoring your position, like, a bunch of times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If she wants to.” Pandora flicked an imaginary piece of dust off her designer blouse. “I promised not to tell, not that they wouldn’t find out. Understand, Lyon?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Uh\u2026 I mean.” Dakota started stroking one of her braided pig tails. “Femme Mystic is still, like, a villain. I know she was pardoned after the whole Alabaster Void thing, but like\u2026 she’s done some bad stuff.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora cocked her head as if she was deeply offended. “Really?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Um, yes?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Force-femming abusive men in power is worse than helping my father try to conquer the world, Lyon?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No! I mean\u2014I guess,” Dakota hadn’t really considered Pandora’s very brief time as a villain as important\u2014it had barely lasted two whole days. “What I mean is that\u2014”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn put one of his massive hands on her shoulder. “Dakota. Please. I’m just trying to find my dad.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young heroine had to swallow at that. Her parents were in the Spike, a jail for super villains, even though they didn’t have any powers. There were no phones that reached the Spike, and there wouldn’t be another visiting hour until sometime in June. The jail wouldn’t be more specific this far out, for security reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota and Rorn lived in the same house, and they’d never talked about how hard is was not having their parents around. They hadn’t needed words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Okay. For your dad.” She glanced around, and pointed at a building across the street. “I guess we start there?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Where?” Rorn asked, but Pandora’s “Why that building, Lyon?” cut through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Cause the windows are too dark? Look at how much darker they are than the ones next to it. Plus, its to the east of Femme Mystic’s building. Every book on mysticism I’ve read says that’s where you want to be to capture the energy of the rising sun.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her team mates glanced between her and the building. “Which windows?” Rorn asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The dark ones on the\u2026 two, three, fourth floor. Near the end?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They look like curtains to me, Lyon.” Pandora sounded a little weird when she wasn’t being hostile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No, see, the ones above it have curtains closed, and they aren’t anywhere near that dark. See?” When Pandora raised an eyebrow at her, she added, “That’s how Trusthseeker keeps finding Hexcrafter’s lair. She talked all about it in the incident report. That’s why I looked for it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora and Rorn exchanged glances. “Well, team,” their nominal leader said. “It’s better than the idea we had previously. Let’s check it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yay!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota was a little disappointed they didn’t need her to pick the lock on the door. Electronic locks like the ones these buildings had usually required a bit more finesse. But, as Pandora was quick to remind her, the older girl was a technopath. The doors just opened as they approached. The elevator opened before they hit the button. It protested a little at Rorn’s well-muscled weight, but it got them there at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they reached the door, Dakota suddenly started having second thoughts. There was a dangerous witch behind this door, one who thought she had a chance going up against Femme Mystic. She wrung her hands as ants made of ice crawled down her spine. \u201cAre we sure this is good idea?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best idea we have.\u201d Rorn spoke through clenched teeth. He raised one over-sized fist to knock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The door slammed open, and the hallway was flooded with sickly green light. Dakota screamed and covered her eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hall was suddenly warmer, and filled with the sticky, humid air and an overwhelming scent of the woods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Not again!” the minotaur bellowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Stay calm, Rorn!” Pandora snapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota opened her eyes and blinked in disbelief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apartment and the city around it were gone. A single, impossibly massive tree loomed above them, far wider and far, far taller than the apartment building had been. Even its lowest branches were invisibly distant in the gloom overhead. The three of them were standing in a crook of it’s roots, each of which was like a curved wall, high enough Dakota couldn’t see over them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At her feet was a yellowed rotting leaf, spread out in front of her larger than her brother’s whole house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Fletching, any idea what just happened?” Pandora snapped. She’d already transitioned to her Princess Aetherium armor, all shiny chrome and lines of violet energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I… think we shrunk?” Dakota stammered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I can see that, Fletching.” There was no patience in the armored heroine’s voice. “How do we break the spell?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She swallowed. “I don’t know. Shrinking like this is usually mad science stuff.” She had to raise her voice over a rising droning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Incoming,” Rorn pointed. Both girls looked up to see a pair of brightly colored yellowjackets heading straight towards them. Each wasp was nearly the size of a city bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They’re coming right towards us.” Dakota took a step back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Rorn, you take the one on the right.” If anything, the giant insects made Pandora sound calmer. “Fletching, see if you can find us someplace more secure.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Get down here you yellow bastard.” The naked enthusiasm in the minotaur’s voice drew a brief scowl from Pandora. Then she took off running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the wasps peeled off to head towards her, plummeting lower as it did. She was moving towards the monster, so it reached her before its sister squared off the with minotaur. The wasp came in fast, swooping in with it’s stinger pointed down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora went into a slide, a hand aimed up a the monster. The barely-visible pink ray of her repulsor beam connected the two of them, and the yellowjacket jerked in the air. Pandora stopped mid-slide as the force of the repulsion shoved her down into the leaf litter, but the wasp passed over her before plowing it’s stinger into the detritus of the forest floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota could feel the impact through the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The armored cape was moving while the wasp was still recovering. She shot up into the air, the pink of a repulsor beam shooting straight down into the ground. Then she connected an identical tractor beam from the greaves of her armor to the grounded wasp. The two shot towards one another, Pandora moving far faster. The collided with a dull clack<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second wasp had closed with Rorn, but was moving with much more caution. It darted at him with it’s stinger, but flitted back into the air after the minotaur dodged to the side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota backed off several steps. The droning of it’s wings was painfully loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wasp came in for a second stab. This time Rorn leapt at it. It managed to extend its legs to claw at him before he hit it, but the limbs proved little more than convent hand holds for the minotaur. He swung on them, putting his hooves between himself and the beast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He kicked the creature so hard that when he landed back on the ground, he was still holding its legs, no longer attached to his body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn let out a laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blow seemed to take something out of the wasp, which was suddenly weaving erratically. It crashed into the massive tree, and rolled down it’s bark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Rorn, to me!” Pandora shouted. She was sprinting on foot away from the second wasp. It was charging after her on it’s legs. At some point, it had lost both of the wings on one side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minotaur wasted no time to close with the creature, slamming into one side of it’s head just before it managed to catch back up with Pandora. He followed up with a knife-hand blow to the creature’s extended neck. His hand drove through it’s carapace, and pulled out coated in a yellow slime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creature staggered a step before collapsing. It didn’t look like it was breathing, but then again, wasps didn’t have lungs, did they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota squeaked as the leaf she was standing on suddenly started to shake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A hideous, enormous centipede burst through the grass. Each of it’s twisted legs was larger than Dakota was tall. It’s body swung up dozens of feet in the air. It focused its inhuman black eyes and waving antenna in her direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She could feel the past few weeks of training click inside her. Instead of freezing, or screaming, or panicking, Dakota reached up to pull an arrow from behind her and fit it to her bow. It was an LED arrow for illumination, but she loosed it anyway. She didn’t quite manage to hit the thing though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the moment that Dakota realized she was dressed in her Fletching outfit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the centipede’s head shot forward, Dakota found herself, sliding across the leaf litter in the direction of Pandora. The glow of the tractor beam pulling the two young heroines together was just barely visible in the wooded twilight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The centipedes mandibles snapped the leaf where she’d been sitting clean through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Damnit, Fletching,” Pandora’s voice wasn’t quite on top of her. The tractor beam had pulled her off her feet as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn bellowed as he charged the many-legged monster, but was interrupted when its back half burst up from the leaf litter directly in front of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Stay here,” Pandora said before shooting up into the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota blinked, and looked at the bow in her hand. It was her old one, the one that had been her brother’s back in the day, with the slightly bent wheel of the top cam from when she’d dropped it. Not the newer, much nicer model Artemis had given her for her birthday last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Why do I have a bow?” She asked aloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora flew over her head, both hands extended to hit the centipede with a repulsor beam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That slowed the creature enough that it’s mandibles snapped close just in front of Rorn. With a smile, Rorn punched it in its forehead as he leapt up onto the creature’s head. He caught one of it’s antenna, but was forced to cling on for life as the monster started swinging it’s head back and forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota took a closer look at herself. She was in the green tunic and (now dirty) white pants of her Fletching costume. But more than that, she’d lost at least thirty pounds since she’d been at the theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How was that possible? Why would the witch’s defensive spell do that? It was what she looked like in all her super hero dreams, but–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s a dream snare!” Dakota glanced around, looking carefully at the surroundings. If she was dreaming, there should be other signs. The tree still loomed impossibly far above them, fading into the gloom above. She cast a shadow below her onto the giant leaf litter, but the air above them was dark. That wasn’t how real light worked. It had to be a dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn and Pandora darted back and forth, fighting the giant centipede.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Think, Dakota. How do capes deal with dream snares?” She’d skimmed the Professors Hellsing’s report on one of these only a week or so ago, and the CapeWiki page that covered the incident. She should have some idea. Focus<\/em>. “Most often, if the witch wants to control what happens in the dream, keep us here, she needs to be in here with us. If we wake her up\u2014or if we wake ourselves up\u2014we can get out.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Now!” Rorn bellowed, rolling away from the centipede. It reared up as if to strike, but it’s head suddenly fell, as if it was far to heavy. A second latter, Pandora plummeted out of the sky onto it’s head. Her knees bust through he creature, splashing a sickly green slime around her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora stood up from the ruin of the monster’s head looking down at her ichor-splattered armor in disgust. “Oh God! It’s everywhere!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn laughed, and pointed up. “We’ve got more incoming.” He sounded excited that three more of the monster yellowjackets were plummeting down at them from the gloom above. They definitely hadn’t been there when Dakota had looked up just a moment ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota slapped her own face. “Wake up!” She was still in the giant forest when she opened her eyes, but now her cheek stung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What the hell are you doing, Fletching.” Pandora was breathing hard, and doing her best to wipe the insect innards off herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re trapped in a dream snare.” Dakota tried pinching herself. It also didn’t work. “If I can just wake myself up\u2026”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora shot her a dirty look. “If we’re dreaming I–“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You’ll what?” Rorn had his eyes glued to the rapidly approaching monstrous wasps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota blinked. The space where her armored captain had been standing was empty. Slimy ichor footprints led up to the point, but the older girl was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Did she\u2026 did she wake up?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dakota, look out!” Rorn’s rock-hard body tackled Dakota, pulling her out from the swooping path of one of the wasps. He hit just as hard in dreams as he did on the training field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She found herself blinking up at the electric lights and paneled ceiling. She was breathing easily, and the stinging in her cheek was gone. Rorn wasn’t over her, like he had been a second ago, and both the smell of the forest and the drone of the wasps were gone. Looking down at herself, the Princess Hanako t-shirt and all those extra pounds were back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From off to her left, Rorn said something in his native tongue in a tone that made it clear he was asking something like “What in the hells?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota sat up, looking into the open door of the apartment. Pandora\u2014back in her designer pinks\u2014was dragging another black girl out into the hallway by her arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Please pardon the intrusion, miss,” the amount of menace Pandora could put in her voice sent more ants down Dakota’s spine, “but we would like to have a polite talk.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Please don’t hurt me!” the girl tried to cover her face the moment the Scions of Shadows’s captain let her go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota gave her a good look. She was black, but not as dark-skinned as Pandora, and her hair was in a short afro. She was wearing a pink t-shirt with a big red heart on it, and stained jeans. Everything about her looked like it had seen better days\u2014she had fake nails on three of the fingers on her left hand, and it didn’t look like the missing false nails was a deliberate choice. She was the kind of skinny that suggested she didn’t always get enough to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What is going on?” Rorn rumbled. He’d made it to his hooves, while Dakota was still sitting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is the witch that’s been spying on Femme Mystic,” Pandora said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He is? But that’s not\u2026 uh.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He?” Dakota asked, giving the pink-shirted witch another look. They had a youthful-looking face, but they’d been taller than Pandora when the older girl was dragging them around. Their shirt might be a little loose, but it didn’t seem like they had any breasts to speak off\u2014which didn’t necessarily mean anything. Luna was the most beautiful woman to ever live, and she was pretty flat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Please, I didn’t mean anything, I just, you know.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You’re trans!” Dakota said, the pieces all falling into place. “You trying to steal Femme Mystic’s gender bending spell!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 6: <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rorn son of Rore was still half-expecting this new witch to shrug off the spell and reveal themselves to be a transformed Tirnys. The cyclops had been avoiding the supposedly-skilled members of the Justice Union for almost two months now, and he had promised to watch to see if he needed to do “cyclops things” to get the secrets out of Victoria. It didn’t make sense that there would be multiple witches spying on her without noticing one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But apparently, that was exactly what was happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’d objected strongly into going into another witch’s lair, especially one who had already bewitched him once. This apartment had reeked of different herbs than Victoria’s cluttered apartment, but the smell was unpleasant enough before factoring in the fact that he’d just gotten a very good reminder about how dangerous witches spells could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This young witch didn’t outwardly seem anywhere near as intimidating as Luna’s grandmother. She was skittish, and unsure in her movements. Rorn still found it difficult to think of her as a her, because her form was obviously that of a young man. But this was a world by-in-large without gods, so it wouldn’t be as easy as it was for a nair<\/em> (or ‘trans’ as it was apparently called in English) to have their forms re-aligned to correct the accident of their birth. Rorn didn’t understand why Pandora and Dakota found it so strange that he assumed basically any temple in any city would align a nair<\/em>‘s body with their gender. Being this isolated from the gods could not be healthy for people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four of them had gone for a walk, with Pandora deciding which way they were going. It was close to neutral ground. The witch claimed her name was “Andi”, but she seemed oddly hesitant to share that detail. That might have been the same caginess that Tirnys had about sharing his real name, or it might be something more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota walked next to her, and was doing that thing that came so easy to her: acting friendly with a dangerous otherworldly creature. Rorn wanted to admonish her for being so open and so close to something so dangerous. Unfortunately, he was one of those dangerous otherworldy creatures and his ability to eat in his backwards human world depended on her friendship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But why not just ask Femme Mystic? She’s very public sworn that she would rid humanity of the ‘corruption of men’ more than once. She’s even tried to pull off Great Works that did exactly that a few times.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora and Rorn followed a short distance behind the younger girls, content to let Dakota do the talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She’s not…” Andi struggled to find the word. “Not safe. The magic she tried to use; there was a good chance it would have killed more men than it feminized. She didn’t care. And my teacher always said that witches didn’t get to be Great Work powerful unless they, you know, were willing to kill a lot people to get there.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four walked along the street for a bit of quiet. “Who was your teacher?” Dakota asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They, um.” Andi hugged herself. “They died. A witch killed them for their spellbook.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota took her hand. “It’s okay. Femme Mystic isn’t that kind of witch.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andi looked at her and then turned aside. She didn’t let go of her hand though. “I think she is.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Why do you think that, Ms. Just Andi?” Pandora asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trans girl flinched. “I just, y’know, do. She’s wrapped herself in power, and I don’t think you can gather that kind of power without doing something really bad. I\u2026 I saw the Professors Hellsing once, and they weren’t wrapped in power like that; all dark and twisted.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They walked in silence a bit more. “Well,” Dakota put on an optimistic smile, “I think we should go ask her. She won’t try anything with three-quarters of the Scions of Shadow there to protect you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And if she does, we can take her.” Rorn had not forgotten Tirnys’s promise to learn Victoria’s secrets, one way or another. And he did owe Victoria, a little for that stunt with the chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Why? I mean, why would you do that for me?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re capes, Ms. Just Andi,” Pandora replied. “Full members of the Justice Union. We always try to do the right thing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But, like\u2026 it’s extremely risky to, you know, make an enemy of a witch like Victoria Craft.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Which is why, if she does say no, Ms. Just Andi, you’re going to leave Tranquility City.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What?” Andi, Dakota, and Rorn asked in unison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As Omnimind put it, the Justice Union protects people who fall into the tiger pit, and tigers from villains who jump in the pit looking to harm them. If Femme Mystic responds to a polite, reasonable request with violence, we’ll protect you from her. If you try to steal from her\u2014especially if you have to hurt her to do so\u2014we’ll protect her from you. Do you understand, Ms. Just Andi?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andi lowered her eyes. Dakota, still holding the witch\u2019s hand, chipped in “Why would she need to leave town?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Because I know what kind of witch Femme Mystic is.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora let the words linger in the city air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You don\u2019t think….” Dakota bit one of her fingers. Rorn wasn\u2019t sure what she was trying to avoid saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think she\u2019ll feel threatened by a young, desperate witch who wants her secrets. We won\u2019t like what she does when she feels threatened, and we don\u2019t have the time to constantly watch over anyone. Do you understand, Fletching?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I thought you said you would protect me?” Victoria asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For one meeting, Ms. Just Andi.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I don\u2019t like that door.” Rorn grumbled. He clenched and unclenched his fists, staring at the perfectly mundane-looking door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That is the idea, Rorn.” Pandora said. Victoria had buzzed them into the building, so should know their arrival was imminent, but the door remained locked. “We\u2019re here, Femme Mystic.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I know,” the old witch\u2019s crotchety voice came through the door. Rorn tried the nob again. Finding it still locked, he let out a low rumble. Andi was positively clinging to him now, her hands shaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We\u2019re waiting, Femme Mystic.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And you\u2019ll keep waiting until I\u2019m good and ready, child.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I don\u2019t like this,” Rorn grumbled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She could be preparing anything.” There was a note of panic in Andi\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You saw how messy her place was, Rorn.” Pandora didn\u2019t sound alarmed, but she was also opening and closing her fist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, with the clunking of latches, Victoria opened the door. The reek of herbs hit Rorn like a fist, and he covered his nose. It had gotten stronger since they were last here. The old witch was also holding a small bit of in-progress crochet in her left hand. One that could have easily held a spell like the one she\u2019d used to bind him earlier. “Come in. You\u2019re letting the warm air out.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“How can you stand that smell?” Rorn asked as the he and the three humans entered the witch\u2019s lair. There were three plush chairs cleared of debris. Most of what had been covering them was strewn over the chair Rorn had broken earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What smell?” Dakota asked. Her wide were darting to and fro about the cluttered witch\u2019s lair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Never mind that. Come in. Sit. Let me see this little spy.” Victoria hadn\u2019t offered anyone an emenem, although the chalice containing the brightly colored candies was still on the over-full table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Uh. Hi, Ms Mystic. My name is, uh, call me Andi.” She was digging her mis-matched nails into Rorn\u2019s divinely-blessed skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora and Dakota took the two chairs facing the one the old witch had settled into. Rorn moved Andi to stand directly in front of their host, albeit just a bit still behind him. “She\u2019s just here to talk,” he growled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Is she now?” Victoria sounded skeptical. “Let me get a good look at you.” She leaned forward and fixed here eyes on her disheveled house guest. At first, she scowled, and Andi tried to slid further behind Rorn. But then a predatory smile slunk over the old witch\u2019s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Oh, Sam, Sam, Sam.” Victoria\u2019s voice sounded amused, but she looked like a cat watching a mouse. “Did you really think I<\/em> wouldn\u2019t see through that disguise?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andi\u2019s grip on Rorn\u2019s arm tightened. “W-what disguise?” The guilt was so obvious in the young witch\u2019s voice, Rorn couldn\u2019t help but turn to look at her. She was wearing a smile of a child who knew they\u2019d been caught doing something bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind him, Rorn herd Pandora gasp. She\u2019d heard it too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Femme Mystic made her move. It looked like she tossed aside the crochet she had in hand, but then the world was still. Rorn wasn\u2019t breathing, but he wasn\u2019t holding his breath. He was suddenly aware he couldn\u2019t hear his heart beating. The discarded bit of fabric slowed to almost stationary in its arch through the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that unnatural stillness, Victoria moved, unaffected by her spell. She lunged, pinching at the air in front of Andi\u2019s lips. Rorn was frozen in place as she pulled her hand back, drawing a sickly black cloud out of the young human\u2019s lips and nostrils. The cloud struggled against the witch’s, but was inexorably drawn out of the trans youth. The smell of it, a sickly mix of oil and bile, washed over Rorn a second before he felt his heart once again beating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world returned to normal. Victoria held the sickly boll of miasma in an unsteady hand as it pitched back and forth in a futile attempt to escape. The stinking wrongness of that thing stopped him from striking out at the older witch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind him Andi collapsed like a puppet with it\u2019s strings cut. Rorn\u2019s supernatural speed allowed him to catch her before she fell to the ground. Her skin was icy cold in the overheated apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What the fuck is that?” Pandora demanded. She\u2019d come to her feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Children,” Victoria smiled. “Meet Samantha.” The living miasma flinched at the name. “She was my teacher once, back when she knew more than I did. But that was a long time ago.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She\u2019s not breathing,” Rorn announced, eyes flicking between the witch and the thing she\u2019d pulled out of Andi. He didn\u2019t want to let the witch to get away with whatever she\u2019d done, but he also didn\u2019t want to touch that struggling thing. Nor release it from Victoria’s grip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Andi!” Dakota dropped to the body, taking one battered hand in her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That body has probably been dead for a few weeks now.” Victoria casually stepped over a pile of fabric moving towards one bookshelf. Her left hand still wiggled with the unholy thing\u2019s attempt to break free of her pinch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But what is that thing?” Pandora asked. She sounded shocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victoria held the foul-smelling puff up in the air while she rummaged around on a shelf. “This, children, is what happens to a woman who cares far more about not dying than she does about being human. It\u2019s a miserable, pathetic, sorry excuse of an existence; hoping from one stolen corpse to another in a desperate attempt to avoid the Reapers for another day of horrid torment.” She pulled out a red fabric orb with a number of small pins stuck into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Corpse!?” Dakota recoiled from the cold body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Worse than a corpse, really.” There was an unnerving quality to casual way Victoria was talking about something horrible. “If you stick around much longer, you\u2019ll see the rot catch up to the poor boy, now that Sam\u2019s spells aren\u2019t keeping it away.” She glanced up from the red fabric ball. “Be sure to wash those hands before you eat anything.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three heroes stood in shocked silence as the former villain stuck a pin through the little living cloud and into the fabric ball. Whatever Sam was didn\u2019t like that, shuddering and doubling it\u2019s struggles. But when Victoria drove a second pin through it, it collapsed into the fabric. A cartoonish worm with big, white eyes smiled out of where the cloud had been sucked into the fabric. The small movements of it\u2019s ineffective escape attempts stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“See?” Victoria raised the fabric ball up for their regard. “Safely secured.” Rorn could see threads of embroidering in the cartoonish worm. Two pins were sticking through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apartment sat in haunted silence. The stench of a long dead animal started to creep through the intense herbaceous odor of the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“How do we know you\u2019re telling the truth?” Rorn asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Excuse you?” All good humor was gone from Victoria\u2019s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I promised this girl that I\u2019d protect her from you,” Rorn\u2019s fist was vibrating. “So forgive me if I want more assurances that I didn\u2019t just become an oath breaker.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Men,” Victoria rolled her eyes. “You, Warmonger\u2019s daughter. Did the name Samantha Crone come up in your research.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eyes wide, and fixed on what appeared to be a dead black girl on the floor of the apartment, Pandora gave a small shake of her head. For once, she seemed badly flapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota spoke up from the chair she\u2019d fallen back into. “They called her Dancing Dead. After she became a lich. She stole the body of the child of the CEO of Aether Telecomm, after she died of cancer. She stole twelve million dollars.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Badly,” Vitoria sneered. “The police recovered nearly all of it.” To the embroider cartoon worm, she added, “And you were always a shit dancer. They had no bushiness letting you get away with that name.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Did she,” Pandora swallowed. “Did she move like a black cloud between bodies.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I… don\u2019t know,” Dakota replied. They only had photos of the girl before and… her body afterward. I didn\u2019t… that wasn\u2019t one of the cases I wanted to read more about.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dancing Dead is listed as \u2018at large\u2019 and \u2018very dangerous\u2019 by the Justice Union.” Pandora\u2019s eyes were distant in the way they sometimes got when she used her technopathy to look things up in her phone without using her eyes. “Rorn, I think…. I think she\u2019s telling the truth.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They consider this thing, \u2018very dangerous\u2019? You capes have gotten weak.” Victoria shook her head. “So there you go, Mr. My-Dick-Is-Very-Big-and-Honorable. Your oath was given under false pretenses to something already dead and planning to betray you. If you\u2019ve any sort of sense at all, you\u2019ll ignore it.” She tucked the fabric ball with Andi\/Samatha Crone pined to it onto the back of the shelf, dropping a sheer black cloth over it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn made an unhappy sound. Glancing down at the body that had called herself Andi, he was forced to admit it already looked different than it had minutes ago\u2014wan and wasting away. More like a corpse a few days dead than someone who had been clinging to him for protection just minutes ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victoria bent down and pulled some sort of folio from the bottom of the bookshelf. “Now, regarding the other question you asked me. I want you to understand that I admit to nothing<\/em>, but if you wanted to follow up that line of questioning, this is where you should go next.” She pulled a bit of paper from folio and offered it to Pandora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leader of the Scions of Shadows had once again found her mask of composure. With a confidence that was at odds with she looked only moments ago, she reached out to take the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What is it?” Rorn asked. He leaned over to look at the paper. Some of the writing was in bold, and larger than the rest. He recognized a \u2018C\u2019 and what had to be a very large number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s a court notice of a plea deal… I think?” Pandora raised her eyes to their host. “What am I supposed to do with this, Femme Mystic?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Use that big brain of yours to find that criminal, and ask her how she could have been caught for shoplifting given the spell you think she had accesses to. Now get out of here. I need to call my daughter and that bastard she hangs out with to do something about Sam and this poor dead boy. I don\u2019t want either in my home any longer than they need to be.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 7: Sequel Hook<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rorn son of Rore sat with Pandora at the heroine Artemis\u2019s ranch just over three hours later. They were there for their weekly training session with he archer heroine. In theory the two of them were supposed to be sparing, but they\u2019d gone a few rounds, and Rorn was extremely frustrated by attempting to fight someone so good at keeping away from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two were standing by the cooler, while the older cape was showing Luna and Dakota some basic fighting forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You\u2019d think that as long as Hellsing has been doing this, she\u2019d be better at basic martial arts.” Pandora sounded a little out of breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Those shadow tendrils of hers are scary strong.” Rorn took a swig of the milk they stocked the cooler with, just for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You\u2019ve spared with her, you know how useless they are in a real fight, Rorn.” Pandora flicked an imaginary piece of dirt off of her shiny metal armor. After a moment, she asked, “Did Lyon find out anything about that court case?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She said it was \u2018sealed\u2019, despite being able to look up some stuff about it on her phone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora snorted. “She should have used the Justice Union database. They log every arrest thoroughly.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You know who the wizard who brought me here is?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I doubt it, Rorn.” Pandora took a swig of the stamina potion inexplicably called alligator juice. “The person in that court case was caught, on camera. So if she had that spell, she\u2019s not as good at casting it as whoever brought you here. But they found her with tens of thousands of dollars of missing jewelry that they didn\u2019t have any video off before the one that caught her. It\u2019s not obvious if you aren\u2019t looking for it, but it seems likely that she did have a camera-defeating spell for a while, but lost it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn nodded. It was frustratingly little, but it was most progress anyone had made in months. “Who is she?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora grimaced. “That\u2019s the thing, Rorn. Her name is Lauren Kelly, and she\u2019s… known to me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You know her?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Not exactly. She\u2019s friends with some of my friends, but we\u2019ve never met.” She took another drink of her stamina potion. “She also wrote a letter to my school demanding I be removed. You understand, Rorn?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She\u2019s a racist piece of shit who was so offended a black girl was attending a prestigious school like St. Andrew\u2019s, that she decided to do something about it. Clear enough, Rorn?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rorn glanced down at his team captain. “Is she not human?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandora snorted. “If you\u2019re the sort of mediocre loser who wants to blame their failings on someone else, you find whatever group looks the least like you, and blame everything on them. This country has some absolutely horrible history in how people who look like me had been treated. Ask someone else about it sometime, Rorn.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Okay, so… should I talk to her then?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No. My friends will get the info from her. It just might take a little time. She won\u2019t want to admit to anything. You\u2019ll just need to be patient, Rorn.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\u2019m so tired of being patient.” Rorn spoke through clenched teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We all are, big guy. We all are.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three days later, Lauren Kelly was murdered in the apartment where she was living out her house arrest. All that was found of her were her bones. No flesh, no blood, and not even any of her spirit had been left at the scene of the crime. Her skull had been split clean in two above her eye sockets, and exactly three metacarpals and two vertebrae were missing. The remaining bones were pristine, as if they’d been deliberately cleaned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bones did however, have some teeth marks. As if something like a human, but slightly larger, had gnawed on a few of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither the police nor the Justice Union had any leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 1: Only Minotaur on Earth Loneliness was an old companion of Rorn son of Rore. He’d spent years traveling human lands with his father, teaching the minotaur way of fighting. It meant months, even seasons where his father was the only other member of his own kind he saw; the only other person who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scions-of-shadow","category-webserial","tag-scionsofshadow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbeece-109b875.ingress-daribow.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}