A Journey of Black and Red-Novel

We leave Marquette the next night in complete secrecy. Phineas has received a gift from Constantine while I was away, a low-born Nightmare. This is, in reality, a thinly disguised show of support for our operation. I suspect that by now most Wardens know that Illinois is being contested anyway. I make sure to bring my armor and have personal effects sent by carriage. As for us, we will ride through the countryside in travel clothes. I did not have the time to find anything better than a chest protector for him and his Knight armor should not be worn.

Phineas gives me a glare from the side as we rush past a small pond, grown smaller by a lack of rain.

I realize that Phineas stopped me on a question of etiquette and amend my remark.

Phineas and I engage in a brief staring contest.

Touché.

It takes us a few hours to reach the outskirts of Chicago despite our speed, and I am amazed to find that the city has continued its explosive growth. Tatty wooden houses and shops sprawl explosively from the beating heart of the city, pulsing in time with the stock exchange and the innumerable train lines. It even smells a bit cleaner with the recent addition of an excellent sewer system. I just find it slightly disappointing that the sewage would spill in the city’s freshwater source but what can I say? I am no civil engineer.

We ride through deserted alleys on our way to Melusine’s compound. I have to admit that the poverty and squalor are not as dreadful as I had feared. Melusine always said that many of her more influential citizens promoted clean living and that she would support their impetus. We even come across a natural park, a surprisingly fancy addition to an otherwise poor district. I have Phineas dismount shortly before we approach Melusine’s compound in case there are hostile sentries and we take to the roofs, or at least I try to before I realize a bit of a conundrum. There are no wooden roofs in all of Chicago that can support a vampire carrying five hundred pounds of eternal ice battle armor on her back. I am reminded of that fact and hope that the cost of repair will not prove too taxing for that innocent family.

I also discover that accidentally and forcefully entering someone’s home uninvited feels terrible and disturbing. I was essentially shoved out.

A click of the tongue to mark his acknowledgment and we are on our way. Melusine has set her base next to meat-packing factories, and while the smell is not the most pleasant, the lack of late night entertainment allows us to easily spot groups of individuals with questionable motives. We avoid them and find our destination guarded and fortified, an immense relief. I dreaded the unlikely possibility that Chicago had been entirely taken over. If we have a base, then we have a chance.

I signal Phineas. We move through the shadows, then circle the main entrance. A tall, protective stone wall encircles the brick buildings my ally made her seat of power. I glance up to see a subtle line of enchantments surrounding the entire perimeter. The hint of fire in the methodical work reminds me of Melusine herself. She must have spent some time setting it up.

We have arrived in a small courtyard. The windows leading to the two-storyies building in front of us are all boarded cleanly. It takes less than thirty seconds for three familiar auras to arrive. Melusine lands first, traits tense under an armored dress I made for her. To my dismay, it looks damaged. John and Urchin follow in similarly patched-up gear. My joy at seeing them again withers at the pain I notice, and the palpable relief when they recognize me. All of them show clear, distinct physical signs of mental exhaustion, a shocking display for us. It makes me angry. This unprovoked attack will be punished. I will make sure of it.

It makes me distinctly uncomfortable.

What is that supposed to mean? Pah. We move between densely-woven defensive enchantments and sturdy bricks then to a fortified door. Guards on the outside are few and grouped, a sign that Melusine expects a vampire attack. Isolated sentries are of no use against vampires. Worse, being picked off tends to affect morale adversely. Those few we come across share the fatigue and stress I detected in my allies. This is a siege and it has lasted for far too long.

Finally, we climb sets of stairs to an elegantly decorated boudoir. The understated luxury belies the base’s rough exterior. I wait for Melusine’s invitation to sit on the nearest couch, a courtesy that she acknowledges with a minute smile.

Phineas makes a choking sound.

I show a bit of fang.

I keep calm. I expected such an outcome, of course, but to hear it from Melusine herself confirms my belief that we are facing a coalition. Between the financial means and the presence of a lord, whoever is attacking us has invested a stupefying amount of resources for the sake of taking me down. I almost feel flattered.

She sighs, and her shoulders slump. Melusine almost never loses her composure.

She stops then and passes a hand through her thick red hair. She searches my face, perhaps waiting for judgement, perhaps comfort. I signal her to continue. I cannot rest until I know.

Another nod.

She winces.

Melusine huffs at the memory.

Melusine glares though I can feel hope bubbling in her carefully-controlled aura.

Oi.

He picks a folded paper from his breast pocket, then places it on the coffee table between the five of us. It contains a summary map of the warehouse quarter along the shore of lake Michigan. Phineas briefly explains how he followed the paper trail to what seems to be the logistics heart of the opposition.

I would think that she underestimates how resourceful a group of supported, trained mages can be. She should not. We sided with one when we escaped the Gabrielite trap all those years ago. She has forfeited safety for profit. Perhaps this is why our enemies wormed themselves in her city while only sniffing around mine. Nevertheless, she has brought us great wealth and will again, given the chance. It is only fair that I should protect our interests.

She stops.

Something shifts in the auras of those I call my friends. I realize that, until now, they had held little hope that the situation might be resolved. A siege of several months has a way to sap even the most stalwart defenders. I do not envy them.

For the first time tonight, Melusine gifts me with a genuine smile. Three knives appear in Urchin’s hands while John rolls his shoulders. They are ready.

Melusine and Urchin stand to leave, and so does Phineas when he realizes that John has stayed. The tall man has regained some of his countenance, and yet I detect an underlying frailty so unlike him that I do not know what to think.

Ah, so this is what it is.

I nod to myself, but really this is just a show.

He frowns mightily after hearing such an outrageous claim. Good.

He tilts his massive head, considering.

With some privacy, I quickly change into my armor and we reconvene outside. They all inspect it in silence. Urchin even raises a hand, marveling at the coat of frost decorating his sleeve like a frilly ornament.

We rush silently through the streets, dodging sentries until we arrive at the shore. It is a matter of moments to find an embarkation large enough to accomodate all of us, but when I alone am left on the dock, Melusine tsks.

The placid water freezes solid under my feet. I stand on the quickly spreading ice while an entire blanket forms around me. It is time for a nice, polar stroll.

Under the protective aegis of the spell, we progress quickly to the warehouse where our foes gather. The fae spell hides aura as well as magic and vision. We move unimpeded in the relative darkness of the cloudy night like wraiths on the surface of the unmoving, fetid waters. The city might be working to clean itself but my friends row through its dirty bath water on our way to an equally dirty deed. In a way, tonight links back to my early years as a courtier. Cloaks and daggers have led to more cloaks and daggers, but this time, I hold the blade.

Melusine’s whispers only reach me because the darkness spell likes me. It remains the first one I cast perfectly, and I feel a deep understanding of its nature. It will hide me until the time has come to forfeit stealth.

The warehouse complex stands on a more desolate part of the shore. It does not even have a proper pier, merely a few planks jutting forward so that midnight travelers can pass their cargo from hand to hand without wetting their feet. Crates and boxes pile up against a rickety wall but I can pierce through the illusion. Those are creaky things that will betray any attempt to climb them. The wall is high and sturdy. The only door has been reinforced with metal. There are no enchantments I can detect, however. We all gather next to it.

I saw him. He is remarkably vigilant for a stooge, but he is looking in the wrong direction. A quick spell and the door opens without a sound. Behind, we find a large courtyard with more crates and jars. There are three large buildings inside of the compound that I can see with one being little more than a barn used to store goods. I dismiss the second immediately because there are no lights there. The third is the right one.

The spell opens a smooth window into the interior, showing a slightly distorted image of a serious man in black pants and shirt inspecting notes with a frown. I recognize a vampire from his immobility, though his aura is hard to perceive at this range. He, too, makes some effort to keep it under control.

The lord sits near the entrance to my right, brooding.

I glare reproachfully.

I decide to explain a point I deem important.

No he does not, but he will. I watch the four warriors walk stealthily to the left entrance. John lifts the maul. Time seems to slow down, heavier. Inside of the house, the lord blinks.

Good instincts, but it will not suffice. I sprint forward.

Despite my grace, the moving armor still produces a whisper of a noise. The lord jumps to his feet as the others look on with confusion. It does not matter. They are too late, because I. AM. HERE.

I hit bricks with my left pauldron and fully unleash my aura. The wall explodes inward in a shower of chunks and debris under my weight. Masonry flies and men scream. Dust fills the air just as my left gauntlet closes around the head of the nearest Master. I clench and pulp it like a ripe melon.

The door behind me shatters as well with the roar of a frustrated and rather pissed off Natalis.

The lord materializes a dueling sword. I let Rose grow from my hand.

Ah.

Yes.

I can feel everything. My four allies crash through the demolished remains of the back entrance, dogpiling the remaining master. Thorny roots shred beams and tiles. They turn bricks to powder as if they were sand. I only manage to stop myself from destroying the desks as the first one sags from a missing leg. This time, the area is considerably smaller and I can only control a handful of roots directly and yet there is no ruining the exhilarating sensation of utter liberation and power now filling me. I am exactly as I was meant to be, complete and free and fully myself. I can grow in strength later. Now is the time to enjoy the moment and this man LOOKS DELICIOUS.

He runs away.

Roland lord. Adrien. Adam’s twin and the more quiet of the pair ruling Kentucky. We had an agreement made at the beginning of the civil war. KILL HIM. CLAIM HIS ESSENCE.

He only wears a beige ensemble that would not look out of place in a salon. They always wear beige with their stupid beige hair and light brown eyes. Like looking at a backstabbing monochrome. Pathetic.

Adrien jumps through a lone window in a shower of glass shards. I demolish the entire side of the house on my way out and cleave the legs of an unfortunate Courtier who had the misfortune of running down the nearby stairs when I pass him by. A hint of Roland power feeds me. Just an appetizer.

Adrien melds into the shadows of the courtyard, his form insubstantial now. No matter. I rush forth and flay the ground with searching roots. I can still sense his presence within the sphere as roots track him even now. A hint of movement leads me to the door we left half-opened. I race after the fleeing lord and turn right out. A root catches his leg when he emerges from behind a crate that would be too small to hide a dog. Reality shenanigans! Two can play that game.

More roots burst through the ground and out of walls to join the others, tightening the hold over my surroundings. Adrien frees himself and only leaves a piece of fabric and a drop of blood in his mad dash to get away from me. I sprint after him. The armor slows me but I care not because who would stop me anyway? I turn the corner to a panicked sentry and regrettable lack of fleeing Roland. I swat the man’s mind like a fly.

“WHERE IS HE?”

Panicked eyes flick to a side alley. I stomp the ground like an unstoppable juggernaut and smile when I feel a presence in the corner, behind a discarded cart with a missing wheel. We are in my sphere. I have to struggle not to let my roots rip him to shreds.

I walk by and lean to the side.

Adrien’s soul blade grinds on my shoulder and bounces back. I angled it perfectly. I grab his wrist before he can retreat and snap it effortlessly. His handsome face is so close to mine that I can feel the small exhale of controlled agony drifting over my eyelashes. I pull him in and retract Rose but he melts again before I can bite down.

The cabin explodes in a torrent of shards. Adrien slips through the rain to a barrel and then, to my immense surprise, jumps into the water.

I watch him disappear under the dark waves. Calm returns to the surface a moment later.

That feckless ruffian.

I cannot follow. I will not follow. I would only turn into a livid ice cube, propelled by rage.

The water is filthy.

I roar once and let the Magna Arqa fade away. He escaped, the slippery bastard. No matter. I can testify of his presence and we should have enough prisoners to put his wardenship to an end. Amusingly, Melusine was entirely correct. There could have been two lords here, with his twin included.

I turn and realize that this is almost a recreation of that scene in Savannah I survived back in eighteen twelve. I had to run from a furious lord Suarez after a small incident of bank robbery, only to dive head first in Savannah’s tepid and filthy waters. How the tables have turned. I scrunch my nose under the face mask and thank the Watcher that I avoided an impromptu bath this time. Let another smell of pee! The curse has been lifted.

In a significantly better mood, I return to the abandoned base to find that we did indeed get all of our foes prisoner. Unfortunately, their base has collapsed. Only half of it still stands.

We bicker with pleasure while packing up. All in all, tonight was an auspicious haul. I was right to act fast. I decide to head back to Marquette where I can securely hold prisoners while I summon Constantine or one of his enforcers.

The next day, Melusine presents me with a newspaper cut framed in elegant rosewood.

I frown and read in silence.

“The Chicago Tribune.

‘Panic by the shore!’

An unidentified lunatic terrorized the coast yesterday evening. At two in the morning, Chicagoans living near Menomee and Wisconsin streets were forced awake by the screams of a deranged individual of the female persuasion. Although many citizens opened their shutters to investigate the disturbance, the guilty harridan could not be found, leaving the inhabitants baffled and irritated.

‘Twas like a mountain lion in rut,’ Mrs. Culpepper reports to the Tribune. ‘If I wasn’t living in the city I would have sent my old Paul with a rifle and a prayer, I would!’

Since the harpy bellowing those horrendous screams could not be found—”

I carefully lower the frame.

I turn to Phineas who considers the offer with greedy eyes.

Urchin, John, and I ride out of the city at nightfall while doing our best to avoid attraction. I unexpectedly feel an aura tugging at us while we move through small streets surrounded by wooden houses of poor making. A fire hazard is what it is.

I keep moving at a slow pace until we find Adrien waiting for us. He wears a new, clean suit which annoys me a bit. I stop Metis, who snorts derisively at the vampire in front of her.