Hakara peeked around the corner, feeling guilty as she watched Carissia perform her prayers. Even from around the corner, the heat was tremendous, a huge golden bowl over a roaring bonfire, piled high with sacrifices. Thickly aromatic smoke was billowing about the place, rare and expensive spices being burnt, along with a suit of enchanted chainmail, the red-tinged rings flickering as their magic was siphoned away. Carissia’s prayers should occupy her fully for quite some time, and keep her in place, and ensure she wouldn’t show up at an inconvenient time!

Hakara slipped away from the room, acutely aware of every sound she was making, even though the roaring snap and crackle of the fire would likely cover any sounds she might make. They were staying in the apartments of some noble, that Carissia had persuaded, quite forcefully, to vacate in their favour. Which were certainly pleasant, but it had been a rather awkward social encounter, with Carissia simply bludgeoning through their objections – even without actively using magic, with a wreath of flame burning around her, she was certainly an intimidating figure. Pajaran had been pressed into service as well, looking uncomfortable in a priestess’ robe rather than her usual armour, waving her hands vaguely through the motions of the ritual.

It was a relief to get outside, the open air far preferable to the close and penetrating heat raging from the bonfire. Whatever blessings Carissia was invoking (even her dealings with gods seemed to be less placatory and imploring and rather more imposing and negotiating from a position of strength, or at least of equals) must be potent ones, from the sacrifices she was making. Although they weren’t really much of a sacrifice on her part – the spices and woods had come from within the household, while the chain shirt had been “donated” by an adventuring colleague of hers, under what had seemed to be duress.

She heard a slight displacement of air and turned, just in time to see Parthenelle appear through her portal. Quite how she managed such an effect, given her armour and lack of other magical abilities, was something she had been studying – it suggested a far more instinctive attunment to magic, to be able to lightly skim into the ethereal plane to enable such an effect, especially mingled in with her regular attacks. Parthenelle, of course, refused to discuss it, at least with any degree of clarity, her teasing grin suggesting she found the matter entertaining. As always, she was prepared for battle, her sword sheathed on her waist, a quiver on her back, an enchanted bow in her hand.

‘To seek the errant?’

‘Yes. I think I should be able to find Semari. Her link to Ronteah gives her something of a unique magical signature. If you could then transport us there, then it might help us find out what’s going on.’

Parthenelle nodded.

‘This would be easier if you had some item of hers, a possession she had used.’

Parthenelle shrugged. ‘A child of nature, simple and fierce.’

‘I suppose that she doesn’t have many possessions, yes. Her fighting style certainly is unusual, and one that lends itself to a lack of equipment. Hopefully the canals of this place won’t hinder the spell either – it is something of a fragile casting, easily prone to failing in the light of external circumstances.’ The blazing sacrifices to the gods of fire hopefully wouldn’t cause an issue either!

Hakara reached into her component pouch and pulled out the bloodhound-fur, then flicked it into the air, where it hovered. A blue sphere appeared around it, pulses flashing out and starting to sense and probe for her. Fortunately, the apartment was close to the centre of the city, meaning that most of it should be within range. Vague shapes appeared in the sphere, those with a spiritual presence similar in some fashion to Semari – for most people, the spell would reveal dozens, especially in such a crowded city. For Semari, it remained resolutely blank, as the magical energy pulsed out again and again.

And then it found something – a roughly human-shaped smear of lightning. Hakara focused, letting herself share the sensations of the spell, gaining a sense of awareness, closing her eyes so as not to be overwhelmed. She turned and let her hand waver, before pointing, slightly downwards. ‘That way!’

Parthenelle took her other hand, and there was a vaguely queasy sensation, like slipping into a pool of oil, as they shifted into the border-ethereal. Hakara kept her eyes closed, letting herself be pulled by Parthenelle, secure in the knowledge that at least in this realm, she didn’t have to worry about walking into anything. As they moved, she moved her hand, trying to focus on the sparking, actinic sensation of Semari, feeling it get closer and closer.

As they approached, the sensation of an imminent storm intensified, a scent like dry air, ready to spark and flare with lightning, almost overwhelming. She opened her eyes a crack, watching the translucent and grey images of the city around her, people bustling about their business, before everything vanished into vague mist.

They were, unsurprisingly, in the trader’s district, full of people coming and going about their business. They were in a square, buildings overhanging them, several tavern signs swinging in an unfelt breeze. Even without the spell, it was obvious where Semari was – through the shadowy walls could be seen a lightning-streak smear, next to a larger, bulkier form dashed through with smoky fire. Hakara tried to make a mental note to enquire with Vrintar about her own powers – she was clearly able to call up flames in some fashion, but it wasn’t an area of magic like anything she had seen before. Perhaps some form of bound elemental? That would explain the tattoos, if they were being used as a focal helix. Although that would mean there would have to be something mixed into the ink to allow proper channeling of the energy, and failure would mean all the energy would be sent into the subject, likely rendering them into ash very swiftly. It must have taken a great feal of experimentation over many years to achieve a stable effect!

Parthenelle pulled her forward and they moved through the wall, finding themselves inside a tavern common room, more vague shapes surrounding them. Semari and Vrintar were, mercifully, in a private room, as Parthenelle moved forward and then released the spell, dropping them back into the real world.

Semari jumped to her feet, hooking a foot around a stool and lifting it into the air, halfway through launching it forward for an attack before she recognised them. She held the pose, one foot still partially raised, fists balled and ready to attack. Vrintar had drawn an axe and was also looking at them uncertainly, a heat starting to flicker out from her – fortunately, nowhere near as fierce a that from Carissia’s bonfire.

Hakara raised her hands and kept her palms open, trying to show she wasn’t about to cast anything. Although at this range, if things did turn to violence, then it would be a struggle to survive, even with Parthenelle to hide behind!

Parthenelle clicked her fingers. ‘Discussion required. The darkness rises, the light fades. Knowledge to be shared.’

Semari relaxed. ‘OK. Guess you want to know about Janaxia? She’s still, like, oogie and stuff.’

‘Is she here?’ Although, much like Semari and Vrintar, Janaxia’s spirit stood out enough to be distinct when glimpsed across the planar boundary.

‘Nah, we ditched her when you lot attacked the Undergarden.’ Semari shifted uncomfortably, still balanced on one leg. ‘Um, is Carissia going to attack? This place is pretty nice, be a shame if it got blown to shit.’

‘The Priestess is engaged before her altar.’ Parthenelle slowly moved her hand away from her sword. ‘For some time, most likely.’

‘We managed to slip away. She’s very focused on catching Janaxia. Well, killing her, to be honest, I don’t think she has much interest in attempting to apprehend or arrest her.’

‘The wrath of heaven burns within her.’

Vrintar nodded. ‘I have heard stories of her in combat. She is said to be ferocious and fearsome. I was not expecting an attack quite so brutally swift, though. I hope there were no unfortunate casualties?’

‘She is rather indiscriminate in her wrath of late. But it looked as though everyone had managed to flee – I imagine those that dwell in such places are used to the occasional interruption, even if it is usually less forceful. She is readying her power for another attack, and means to destroy Janaxia, should the chance present itself.’

‘Yeah, kinda figured she had a grudge. We’ve been trying to get the hell out of town, but the damn guard are looking out for us! And the bastards are, like, competent and shit! So, you got any idea what’s up with Janaxia? She’s been getting super-weird lately. Transported us over to some shitty backwater, then we had to nick a skull, then we went to see her family, and they’re all creepy and dodgy. And not even fancy-creepy like she is, just creepy-creepy.’

‘The enchantments on display at the family estate must have been magnificent!’ Hakara wondered what sort of spells had been woven into the fabric of such a place – a whole host of utility magics, at the least, and probably an entire stuff of dedicated servitors. The laboratories there must have been impressive.

‘Nah, it’s all shit and rundown. Had a clamber on the roof, looked like the attic was full of old crap. Whole town looks like its about to slide into the sea. Glad to be sleeping in the stables, better than being inside! And then Janaxia had to do, like, magical trials or something? I had to help her beat up her sister, although that wasn’t too bad. Wizard fingers snap real easy.’

Hakara slowly closed her hands into fists, just in case Semari decided to attack. Finger-breaking sounded unnecessarily brutal, even if it was an effective way to incapacitate a spell-caster. ‘Her family must have deemed her progress sufficient to be worth testing.’

‘Or they just wanted to get rid of her. But, like, being sneaky about it. Totally shit though, I had to help! All I got was some new clothing. Should’ve held out for a lot more!’

Vrintar growled. ‘While I was rendered unconscious! Dark and powerful magic. I would have wetted my axes with their blood, were it not their place of power. Glad to be away from there. And her kin are deserving of death. Her sister seems to be the least bad and is still something of a snivelling wretch. And without your competency, Hakara.’

‘Thank you, Vrintar. But why are you here? The Crystal Princes have declared themselves neutral and have the power to enforce their desire. What is she seeking here?’

Semari slowly lowered her foot, placing the stool back on the ground. ‘Some mystic widget or other. Think Janaxia kinda forgot for a bit though, you know what she’s like when someone’s throwing fancy stuff at her. We got to eat well though, nice break. Well, up until everything went to shit. There was that weird guy with the glowing thing, and then Kivata spoke to his ghost. He really didn’t like Janaxia! Although she did kinda kill him, so I guess it’s not really much of a surprise. Not sure what Janaxia was after, although we did go to some freaky other world place.’

Hakara slowly moved and sat down, as Vrintar put her axe away. ‘Another world? I would not think Janaxia capable of such a feat of transportation.’

‘I don’t think she meant to. But it was dead and dusty – like old tombs, but without all the beasties you normally get, only things there were, like, semi-together demons and stuff. Was doing weird things to her voice, and I couldn’t talk. She’s been acting funny for a while though and her tattoo’s been acting up as well. Gone super-black, with a few stars in it. And she keeps spacing out all the time or wandering off on her own. Think she might be going crazy?’

Vrintar gestured at Parthenelle. ‘Sit. I don’t think she is that far gone, she appears coherent. But distracted. And still unsure as to her purpose. But what of you?’

Parth spoke. ‘Purging the darkness from the lands.’

‘We have had to fight a variety of vampires, demons and similar beings. It’s been rather stressful, and Carissia is very insistent about continually attacking and pushing onto the next target. Carissia was seeking out Janaxia, hoping that she might have sought refuge with some other ally of darkness. Stathis herself is stable though. Her body is present, but her soul is absent.’

‘Yeah, cos, like, Janaxia ate it, or something. Nom nom nom, slurped it down, like a bowl of soup! Or something classier – uh, maybe wine or something? But yeah, Stathis is inside of her, and not in a fun way.’

‘I believe something like that, yes. I think it is rather more complicated than the usual instance of such things. Whatever Janaxia is, she is rather distinct from vampires and the like. When they feed, they devour and destroy the victim’s soul, destroying it utterly. That would normally result in the destruction of the body as well, when the animating spark is gone. But in this case, that hasn’t happened, so I surmise that Stathis is still alive. Quite how Janaxia is doing whatever she’s doing is something I suspect even she doesn’t know, but I think that Stathis is being held somewhere, maybe? It would explain the angelic being.’

‘A warrior of golden light, born of darkness.’ Parth intoned the wods.

‘Ewww. So, is, Janaxia like, Stathis’ new mom or something? That’s super-creepy, even by Janaxia’s standards!’

Parthenelle and Vrintar both looked somewhat taken aback by this interpretation of Parthenelle’s words, but didn’t respond, leaving Hakara to fill the silence. ‘I think that, um, may be more metaphorical than literal. But Stathis is, I suspect, the animating force behind the angelic being. I haven’t fully worked through all the principles yet, but I suspect something like Matheson’s Inversion.’

‘Well, duh. Yeah, of course the angel-thing is linked to Stathis, she’s got the wings and everything! I thought it was pretty obvious. Just hope she can turn it off, gonna get bloody annoying if she’s glowing all the time. Make it hard to sleep, right? But you can probably do some weird magical bullshit to bring her back, can’t you?’

Hakara felt slightly disappointed – it had taken days of theory-work to figure out even a rough idea of how it might have been done! Even after seeing, and studying, as much as she could, Janaxia and Stathis, it was a thing that was only barely theoretically possible and having Semari simply assume it was possible did sting a little.

‘In theory, I believe it should be possible to do so, although the results will be not entirely predictable, without Stathis’ body present. Still, it will likely be better than being subsumed into Janaxia’s own essence.’ She looked at Semari, expecting to get some dirty comment back in response. Instead, Semari looked slightly depressed and fatigued for a moment before focusing again.

‘Yeah, be good to have her back. Need someone to deal with Janaxia! So, what are we gonna do about Carissia? Sounds like she’s pretty pissed off, and I don’t wanna get set on fire! Just ‘cos Vrintar’s tough against stuff like that! Can’t grab and grapple someone when they’re on fire, least not properly. And she’s probably going to have some funky god-stuff going on.’

‘And Janaxia may herself be empowered – her clothing has been somewhat variable of late, and she appears to have taken her sister, and a Sethan handmaid, as acolytes.’

‘What, Sen? Nah, I think Janaxia’s just wants, like, a little nibble. You know how she gets around bitey people, makes her go all melty.’ Semari clacked her teeth together. ‘Kivata’s pretty whipped though, guess she’s spent her whole life being someone’s bitch. Janaxia’s probably less rough than their mom though? Nowhere near as good as you though, Hakara, you’re way better at blasting stuff and finding things out.’

‘Thank you. I’m am surprised that a scion of the Uth Tremari would be weak in terms of the magical arts, but I suppose that even they must have some weaknesses or those that don’t take to the learning well. I must admit, I have not heard of her, while I have heard of her siblings – Trakatha Uth Tremari has published some interesting papers on how to reinforce animated skin and bone, although most of the theory behind it was beyond my comprehension.’ She coughed. ‘Anyway, yes. We need to try and deal with Janaxia – Carissia intends to go all-out on the attack when Janaxia is next discovered, and deal with her once and for all. I don’t suppose you have any idea where she might be?’

‘Nah, we got split up when Carissia blew the Undergarden to shit. She took off through the caves, went the other way.’ Semari clicked her fingers. ‘Oh, there is that freaky magical pillar thing at Anytha’s pad. That’s how we get slurped into the weird shadow-world place. I think whatever she came here to get was in there?’

‘Ah, the obelisk? I saw it when we went to see Prince Anytha, it was protected by a magical barrier. And you say that Janaxia was able to use it somehow?’

‘Yeah, got Kivata to break through somehow, then time went funky and we were in those tombs. Walls of black stone, and her clothing went super-evil-queen. Was a vault with a load of treasure that we couldn’t get into. Reckon she might go back and try again? Hey, do you think she’s all juiced up with evil now, gonna get more powerful or something?’

‘I’m still not entirely sure quite what Janaxia, um, is. I should have studied her more closely when I had the chance! But from what I have seen of Carissia, it seems highly she would still destroy Janaxia, even if it were to be somewhat more of a fight. Could you describe this place further?’

Semari shrugged, and added more details, of how they had gotten there and what she had seen – from the size of the place, it sounded as though it were extra-dimensional rather than simply a magically-concealed basement. To craft something quite as large though, and sufficiently permanent to risk storing treasure in, that suggested ancient craftwork. Quite what was going on with the rather more extensive sanctuary that Semari and Janaxia had then discovered was something that she couldn’t figure out, but that could wait for later.

‘Interesting. If the place is extra-dimensional, then it may lessen the effect of Carissia’s magics. And make her limit her attacks somewhat if there is a danger of blowing the whole space apart. Even with dimensional anchoring, then such a large space is going to be adversely affected by large-scale magical attacks, especially given Carissia’s tendencies towards, um, indiscriminate blasting. Vrintar, would you be willing to tackle Carissia? You are rather larger than she is and may be able to keep her under control, for at least some time.’

Vrintar sighed, as the heat in the room intensified. ‘That seems risky. Is there no other way? The priestess does not seem likely to take well to interference.’

‘Yes, that is unfortunately true. Could you, perhaps, pretend to be under an enchantment? That way she may at least not, um, try to kill you? If we are successful, then we may be able to retrieve Stathis and prevent Janaxia becoming, uh, more Janaxia without destroying anything.’

‘Having a battle in such an isolated place may also help to preserve the peace. This does seem somewhat rash, but otherwise I cannot see any hope for resolution. Semari, you can assist as well.’

Semari raised her arms into a stiff and straight position, letting her head hand loose from her neck as she unfocused her eyes and spoke in a slow drawl. ‘I am being controlled into being evil! Grrrr, rawrrr! Once this is done, then I want some really good food. Think Janaxia still owes me some dinners as well.’

Parthenelle tapped Hakara on the shoulder. ‘Sun reaches heights. Sacrifice may end.’

‘Yes, we should return. I don’t suppose…?’ Parthenelle shook her head. Her magic unfortunately seemed to have strict limits to how often it could be invoked, meaning that they would have to walk back. ‘If you could infiltrate Anytha’s apartments in readiness, it would be appreciated.’