Chapter 51

The ceramic doll-thing had disappeared from the niche it had been encased in. Her mind went through all of the possibilities. It could have been a suit of armor for an as-yet unknown fourth party, though the mage wouldn't have been screaming at it like that if it was a suit of inanimate armor. That simply didn't make sense. A golem? Likely. Golems were used in certain parts of the Anglish Empire for a perpetual labor force. Their use wasn't particularly widespread, because they tended to break down over time, and the costs of keeping one operational were usually prohibitive. Also, the smallfolk, the peasants, tended to avoid the unnatural things, and the mages that operated them.

A foul smell whiffed past Katarina's nose as she surveyed the room, and her face screwed up in disgust. Like licorice and the rancid stench of a chamberpot that hadn't been emptied in weeks. She took a step back from that smell, struggling with her gorge.

Something whipped past her head just as she stepped back, and she jerked her head left, right, and then she looked up.

The ceramic figure wasn't a golem. It was a suit, but what filled that suit was a ghastly, disgusting black tar-like substance that bubbled and seethed between the joints and bulged out of the eyesockets.

Katarina leaped back with a scream of horror as the thing scuttled, crablike, across the ceiling. She backpedaled until she hit the table, and then she bolted for the door. The thing leapt from the ceiling and hit the doorway with a sound of shattering ceramics. Katarina vaulted over the table, and then heaved it over with a grunt of panicky effort. Whatever liquid was in the brass canister splashed out with a bubbling hiss, filling the room with a rich, sharp chemical smell that invaded the nostrils and went straight to the head.

Katarina staggered back from the effort of flipping the table, and knocked over a stack of books, sending them skittering across the floor.

A sinuous black tentacle rose up from the other side of the table and lunged at Katarina. She dove to the side, tucking her shoulder into a roll as the pseudopod slammed into the wall behind her, sending more books toppling from their stacks.

Katarina was beside herself. She had no idea how to handle such a thing. Her sword likely wouldn't have any effect on it. Her gun likely wouldn't have any effect, either. The air was thick with that chemical smell, choking her, making her lightheaded and dizzy, sick to her stomach.

The black tentacle quested back and forth, seemingly searching for Katarina. She drew her gun and pulled the trigger, and the world exploded in fire.

The malignant warlock known as Maelgritz was singularly consumed with a hunger for recognition. He couldn't remember anything of what he used to be before the Change, before the Black Cities and their endless spew of dark magics, demons, and blasphemies. In fact, all he could remember of that time was a great roaring in his head, filling it with so many ideas it seemed as though his skull would explode with them. Even then, there had been a sense of predestination, that his was not a life meant for mediocrity.

He gathered a few that hadn't been reduced to drooling simpletons, and made his way to an abandoned fortress, the perfect place with which to conduct his experiments. He couldn't remember if he knew of this place beforehand, there was only the certainty that it would be there, that it would be deserted, and that he would be able to accomplish his great works unmolested. That baffling certitude was rewarded, and he had been able to set things up to his liking.

The ones he had gathered to himself were only lightly touched by the magics of the Black Cities, allowing them to keep most of their wits, though they were still wracked with magical fluxes that warped their bodies and eroded their minds. Their usefulness was fleeting, their function temporary.

He had thought so little of them, in fact, when they came to him with an idea about making a golem from a mysterious black liquid found underground, he was so surprised that he helped round up some sacrifices for them. They rendered down the foul-smelling liquid to a thick, blighted ooze, took the mewling and crying giant-child, and performed the necessary sacrifice to bind the soul to the ooze. That the ooze hated them and everything else was inconsequential. It would follow orders.

The rendering process yielded its own rewards as well. A clear liquid, acrid and richly pungent, so like lamp oil and yet was distilled mineral spirits. They dubbed the liquid "naphtha" and worked to refine it.

Katarina knew nothing of this, or its dangerously flammable nature. The only thing she knew was that the black ooze was coming for her, and aside from her sword, the only thing that might be effective was her gun. The spark was enough, but the gunshot itself ignited the naphtha and the whole room went up in an explosive fireball.

The blast slammed Katarina across the room and into the blackboard, toppling it over on top of her. The heat was intense, but the blackboard protected her while the fire roared down the staircase to the room with the giantess, and up the staircase to the room where Maelgritz worked on his own spells. Thousands of pages of notes went up like tinder. The ooze itself writhed and flexed and thrashed, burning with an intense heat. The flames scorched the ceiling, the walls, and greedily devoured all the breathable air in the room. The fire died out, and Katarina passed out herself.

Maelgritz hopped down the stairs awkwardly, vaguely frustrated that his legs weren't what they used to be. When the Change took hold, his legs had become tiny, diminutive things, while his arms had gotten much longer. This was usually an acceptable tradeoff for him, since he didn't do a great amount of travel, and he did do a great amount of magical manipulation and research, but it was times like this that he wished his legs were a bit longer.

He surveyed the room, which was a charred shambles of blackened wood, soot-streaked walls, and chunks of glass. Of the three he had gathered, there was no sign, but the sizzling, charred black mass of ooze might have had something to do with that, he surmised. Looking across the scorched room, he could imagine what had happened. The shattered glass scattered across the floor showed that the ooze had escaped. They hadn't been able to control it, and in their desperation, they'd knocked over the naphtha still and set it ablaze. The resulting inferno had killed them.

He let out an irritated sigh. Well, they were idiots anyway, so no great loss. His greatest responsibility was to get his Blight Storm back on the right track, and the loss of his drones didn't affect that goal. Well, back to work, he thought, and ascended the steps to his own labs with little grunts of effort.

There was a moment of panic when Katarina came to, and she struggled against the blackboard until awareness crept back. She'd fired a shot at the black ooze, and the room had blown up. Her whole body was sore from being catapulted across the room.

"No more of that, please." She muttered as she crawled out from under the blackboard, brushing bits of char from her pants. She took a long moment to survey the room, which was well and truly fucked, and then searched for her pack. She found it next to some large pieces of glass, that, after a long moment spent in consideration, she took as well. Glass was precious in the Anglish Empire. She stood a good chance of making some money or a favor or two with that much.

She surveyed the room, and reflexively triggered her auravision to search for magical items. She instantly regretted it. The magical storm boiling directly overhead threatened to drown out her senses and overwhelm her reason. There was a strong pulse of magic just over her head; the stairs leading up likely lead to the room above this one. The barest glimpse before the horrific nightmare of being right underneath that snarling, boiling, furious tangle of magic indicated that there were things in the room that radiated magic, however she was in no condition to try and locate them.

"That's right, Katarina." She muttered to herself. "Deal with the problem first, then loot." She admonished. She reloaded her gun, and after several minutes of contemplation, she decided to quickly field strip and clean the critical parts. She wasn't sure if the gun was damaged in that explosion. "Measure twice, cut once." She quoted, reassembling her gun. She loaded three fresh shells into the chambers, and then eyed the stairs. Time to see what was up there.

The room at the top of the stairs was dominated by a violet crystal, roughly the size of a large watermelon and so dark it was nearly black that rested on a pedestal in the center of the room. Off to the side was the corpse of a creature that was roughly the size of the giantess downstairs, and Katarina nodded. The woman's fears were legitimate: her mate and child had been killed.

Further in the room were drawings scrawled on the walls, and after a long moment spent eyeing them, she decided that it had to be a map of the local region. That square could be Crisania, the two squares further off could be... she racked her brain for the names of the two cities, "Muntenia and Oltenia." she whispered.

Further up was a larger square, which could be Wallachia. The rows of triangles on the side there could be representing the Blackwall, which meant that the unsteady rows of triangles on the other side were the Schactice and Sterious mountains. The pass that lead up to the Samarkand Highlands was marked out as well. She nodded. A map.

The other side of the room was dominated by a charred black hole that opened up to the storm raging outside.

A creature crabbed across the floor with long, spindly arms and feet so small they were practically vestigial. Katarina's mouth twisted in disgust. Mutant. She watched as the thing panted, muttered to itself, made obeisance to the crystal and scuttled this way and that. It didn't seem to have a neck, just a spherical head that was runneled with wrinkles and pocked with wire-thick bristles of hair attached to a hunched and bulbous torso. Its mouth was a trianglular yawning horror of rows of jagged teeth.

Katarina stood up and stepped into the room and leveled her gun at the thing. It didn't even come up to her belt buckle. It whirled around with freakish grace, screeching in an unintelligible tongue, and Katarina extended her antimagic field forcefully. It screeched and gibbered and suddenly humped and scuttled across the floor towards her; Katarina responded by pulling the trigger of her gun as fast as she could work it.

All three shots struck true, penetrating flesh, shattering bones, and destroying organs. More, the thing's nerves were set alight, sizzling with holy power. As a Witch Hunter, her shots were catastrophic to those that trucked with the arcane. The thing let out several gasping screeches as it flopped and jerked, its screams weakening with every second that passed.

After the thing was still, Katarina drew her sword and stabbed it through the heart and head to be safe. Once she was sure it was dead, she relaxed her stance and reloaded while eyeing the crystal. Well, she'd destroyed magical crystals before.

"Think I've found that storm, Simurgh." Katarina murmured as she reloaded. She pointed at the crystal. "And I think you're the cause."

"Witch Hunter, stay your hand!" A voice from her belt pouch froze Katarina in midstride. She emptied her pouch on the hard stone floor, and one of the items she'd taken from Blackhand tumbled out, a small golden plaque with a blue opal set in its center flashed. She touched it, and once more a woman appeared as if carved from mist.

"Isabella." Katarina greeted the wraith reluctantly. The plaque vibrated in her hand. "Katarina." The voice came from the plaque, but the mist woman's mouth moved. The disjunction of voice and form unnerved Katarina. The woman smiled, and her mouth moved.

"Witch Hunter, you can turn the stone to good." The mist woman urged. Katarina shook her head vehemently. "It's a thing of magic. It's foul, a blight on the land." She replied grimly.

"Sacrifice caused it to taint the land." Isabella agreed. "And sacrifice can turn its powers inward on itself."

"So then what? It's destroyed?" Katarina demanded. "I can do that right now, you don't even need to wake up. I think I'm pretty good at destroying magical crystals." She added.

Isabella shook her head. "When the power is turned inward, the rains become nourishing instead of damning. The land has been tainted with sickness and death. If you destroy the crystal you will end the storms, but the blight will remain. Instead, you and I can use this stone to cleanse the taint it once spread across the land. Life can return, Witch Hunter." She urged.

Katarina shook her head. "How can I do that?" She asked. "I am no mage."

The plaque vibrated with laughter. "I am, Witch Hunter."

Katarina rolled her eyes, exasperated. "How do we fix this, Isabella?" She asked. "What must I do?"

"Sacrifice." The mist woman replied simply. Katarina sucked in a breath. The mist woman pointed at the plaque in Katarina's hand.

"If you place that atop the jewel, I will turn its power against itself, and the rains that come will purify the land." She replied. "I will make the sacrifice."

Katarina shook her head. "That wasn't the deal. The deal was that I would find a way to free your soul to join the Goddess." She stated, her chest tightening painfully. The mist woman smiled sadly.

"This is my way." Isabella replied. "I will die- truly die- a servant of the Golden Lady." She urged gently.

"You hadn't even given me a chance." Katarina replied sadly.

The mist woman shook her head. "Let me do this, Witch Hunter." She urged. "Let me spit in the eye of darkness once more." She encouraged.

Katarina sighed, and reluctantly placed the golden plaque onto the gem. The misty woman grasped the sides of the crystal and suddenly, the stone turned milky white, as if filled with mist.

"So long, Isabella." Katarina whispered. "Goddess grant you a long, sweet rest from the travails of the world."

Katarina watched as the sickly clouds quieted, calmed, and broke up. The blue sky and sunlight indicated late morning. Katarina let out a long breath. It seemed like forever since she'd woken up in the stables at the bottom of the ramp.

"Look at me, mami!" She exclaimed tiredly, using the childish term for mother. "By the grace of the Golden Lady and the help of Isabella, I've saved Ardeal before lunch!" Immediately after saying it, she regretted it. She shook her head bitterly. She shouldn't make light of such things, especially since she still had some tragic news to deliver to a very upset giant woman downstairs.

She eased into her blessed senses, and began looking over the room and the mutant mage for any magical items. Strangely, there weren't any.

"Either he didn't need them, or he didn't know how to make them." She murmured wonderingly. Large-scale magic typically had stringent requirements. Magical circles, layers of protections, material components and the like. Usually a place like this would be packed with charms and fetishes and amulets and totems and trinkets to create the bounded fields of protection and wards, magical implements to create whatever other components were necessary for the spell to work.

"There were things downstairs." She mused, and headed downstairs without looking back.

Katarina descended the staircase and entered into the chamber where Ollara huddled in her cage.

"Hey, Ollara." Katarina called, and the woman sat up, dashing away her tears.

"You return. Have you given up?" the giantess asked curiously. "I won't hold it against you. That thing is foul beyond measure."

"They're dead." Katarina replied simply. Ollara gaped at her, and then her expression slid to something more cynical. "You lie."

Katarina shook her head. "There were four of them, total. They're all dead now." She reported honestly.

The giantess stared at her long and hard. "My mate?" She asked quietly. "My daughter?" She whispered.

Katarina took a long breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry. I... found their remains. They've been dead for some time." She paused again. "I'm sorry."

The woman clenched her jaw, broke eye contact with the Witch Hunter. "I... I see." She whispered. "You killed them, though?" She asked in a voice on the edge of breaking. Katarina nodded. "All of them."

The woman nodded again.

Katarina eyed the cage curiously. "Is it the magic that keeps you in, or the metal?" She asked, and the giantess grimaced. "The magic."

Katarina nodded, and moved towards the cage. Suddenly the giant woman could feel the magical barriers simply vanish!

"How is it that you can do such things?" She asked, and Katarina smiled. "It's one of my abilities as a Witch Hunter. I can cancel magic in a specific radius around me." She explained.

Ollara gaped at her in stunned amazement, and then laughed. "Those things didn't have a chance, then." She offered, and Katarina nodded.

The giantess grasped the bars of the cage and heaved, bending them out of true. She stepped out of the cage, and Katarina stepped back.

The giantess eyed Katarina as she flexed her hands and arms.

"You have been true and straightforward with me." She stated, and nodded. "Our bargain persists. Come with me."

"Wait, bargain?" Katarina disputed, baffled. The giantess eyed her as if she were stupid.

"I told you: There is some relic of the Lily here. I felt it when-" She cut off and turned away abruptly.

The woman led Katarina through a maze of halls and rooms that were obviously intended for various functions. Finally the woman stopped at a pair of wooden doors.

"Here, Katarina Witch Hunter." The woman advised. Katarina tugged on the doors experimentally.

"Locked." She reported, and the giantess rolled her eyes. She grabbed the large door handles and pulled, slowly exerting greater and greater strength. Katarina watched avidly with undisguised awe and admiration as the muscles in the woman's arms and legs flexed and tensed as she pulled.

Finally, the giantess relaxed, and shook her head. "I cannot. I haven't the strength." She said by way of apology. "I don't know how long I spent in that cage, and I haven't eaten." She advised. "I'm as weak as a newborn goat."

Katarina shook her head. "I doubt that very much. You look magnificent." She praised, and the giantess smiled down at her.

"Did you have clothes when you were brought here?" Katarina asked suddenly. "You're very attractive, and..." She trailed off. "It's distracting."

The giantess laughed. "I did. I shall go in search of them, if you like."

Katarina nodded. "Please." She encouraged. "And my horse is in the underhall, just off the room you were in." She advised. "I'll meet you down there if I can get this open while you're looking."

The giantess nodded, and strode away.