Camellia watched the cultists flee. Some of them broke from the walkway and ran over the rubber playground. They hurried to the exit, but the small entrance created a kind of bottleneck. Camellia worried they’d trample each other.

She ran to Eva. “They won’t get out of here before that bomb goes off.”

“Relax, it won’t go off,” Eva said quietly.

“What do you mean?” Meladee frowned. “What the...oh…”

Camellia looked at the bomb. She saw it too. Eva had entered one of the shops and commandeered something that looked like a metal pot. She’d combined it with other items to make it appear technical. If not for the very real danger posed to her old colleagues, Camellia would have smiled at Eva’s ingenuity. Camellia guessed the threatening gun must be fake too. It looked a bit cobbled together up close. After all, Eva had left the freeze ray aboard Faustina. She had her other guns, but they posed less of a visual threat.

“Uh oh.” Meladee pointed up. “Here she comes now. She’s gonna be pissed by the way.”

Alastronia climbed down the ladder. Camellia thought she might as well have used the slide. She’d make it to the ground faster, but Alastronia made the attempt at dignity. Other cultists, big ones, headed towards their trio.

“What can we expect?” Eva asked.

“She’ll have others fight for her. Puppets probably. Those big guys too. Since most people here are mages, she might even drop the anti-magic field. Then, we can bring down the barrier. Good plan,” Meladee congratulated. She looked between Eva and Camellia.

“Yes, all improvised.” Eva drew her staff and held it ready.

Camellia really wanted to save her colleagues. Her plan had failed utterly, but what did she expect? No one could change her mind with a few short words...not even Adalhard.

Eva stepped in front of Camellia. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to put them out of your mind. Arm yourself.”

Camellia drew her wind sword and wished for night. Who had secret cult meetings during the day anyway?

As the men approached, Meladee got behind her two friends. Really, she got behind Camellia who stood a bit behind Eva.

Eva pulled one of her real guns and actually fired into the approaching cultists. They paused, and shouts rang through the group.

“Take down the field!”

Meladee’s heart fluttered to hear it. She would dearly love for them to do just that. She tried simple spells. Nothing materialized. The men hid behind playground structures, held off by Eva’s gun.

Still, Meladee felt nothing. No magical energy flowed through her, and no magic circles came into being. Then, it happened. A circle of grey ringed Meladee. It blasted, exploding into smoke. The smoke hid the trio from view, and Meladee laughed.

“Alright. Here we go.”

Meladee imagined her dragon’s magic circle. Ice-blue rings and symbols hummed for a moment, and then, Meladee’s dragon rose up above the smoke. Meladee knew the view must be pretty cool from outside their hiding spot. How lucky that her smoke spell should be the one to inform her of the field’s demise.

Meladee’s dragon roared.

“Meladee, no,” Camellia cried. She looked up at the towering dragon, mouth slightly agape. She couldn’t press the complaint because puppets charged into the clearing smoke.

The wooden servants wore shield spells and carried weapons. They ran for Eva, not the least bit afraid of Meladee’s dragon.

Meladee looked to Eva. “What’d I tell you? Puppets. Start beating them up!”

Eva raised her gun and shot a puppet. A burn formed on its chest. She shot again. The puppets staggered but kept coming.

Meladee cast a lightning spell. It formed a chain through the wooden servants and even caught a couple of cultists. One big man clutched his chest and fell to his knees.

Camellia performed a flourish and a gust of wind sent several puppets sailing back. A gentle breeze caught the cultists and moved them out of harm’s way.

Figures. Camellia has quite the soft spot for cultists today.

Meladee’s dragon didn’t. It roared and guarded their backs. As puppets and cultists approached, the dragon blew ice into their midst. It swung its tail and sent puppets shattering against the play equipment. One puppet snapped in half on the climbing gym and began to drag itself across the rubber.

Meladee heard the hum of magic, and in the sky, she saw dragons fly out of airborne magic circles. Red, yellow, and orange – the perfect dragons to take on her icy beast.

“Shit.”

“When will the barrier be gone?” Eva asked.

“We’ve got bigger problems getting to our ship than that stupid barrier. No anti-magic field means I’m up against a whole lot of mages.” Meladee could really use her bell, but the dwarves and their anti-nature structures barred that choice. She could use invisibility, but then no more fun spells. The circles would mark her location, and the magic barriers would go back up.

Meladee didn’t have any other dragons to call. She could invent a new one, but she struggled to invent summons in the heat of a battle. She settled for a beast she already knew – a giant chicken – a basan. It breathed harmless cold fire. Well, the fire had been harmless, till Meladee added her “improvements.” In addition to the now dangerous blue fire, she gave her basan a skin of rock.

A dragon of red blew fire, and the ice dragon made itself small. The great rocky basan spread its wings and shielded its ally.

“Just six,” Camellia said.

“Six what?” Meladee searched the battlefield to see what Camellia could be counting.

“Mages. Everyone else is fleeing. We just have six mages and some big men to deal with. Oh, and the puppets of course.” Camellia performed another flourish.

A whirlwind took the puppets away. They sailed past the hammer shaped swings, and the wind pulled the hammers back and forth, cracking a few of the puppets in its grasp.

“Safety first on this playground.” Meladee pointed to the puppets destroyed by children’s toys.

“Move!” Eva shouted. She shoved both Meladee and Camellia back.

Camellia kept running. She ducked under a play structure and disappeared from Meladee’s sight.

“Go.” Eva shoved her again.

Meladee looked up to see balls of fire hanging in the air, headed their way. She and Eva ran and each ducked into a tunnel.

Other fucking mages. Sometimes, Meladee hated them, and their wonderful achievements.

A ball of fire hit Eva’s tunnel. Sparks flew over the entrance, and Eva felt the heat. Her fake bomb had cleared most of the cultists, but she and her friends still had a sizeable group to battle. Six mages, in Eva’s opinion, were too many. She would make their demise her priority.

Eva crawled to the tunnel’s end. She found herself inside a kind of room. It presented two ladders up, and a hole to the outer playground. Eva put her hand on a rung, but she didn’t climb.

Wooden puppets entered the tunnel, and Eva heard the click of their joints against the painted metal. These mindless synthetics reminded her of the lowest models back in Lurren. Those models worked in factories and did jobs that no organic Lurrien wanted. Eva never cared much about them then, and she didn’t care about them now. Puppets, she thought, described them perfectly.

The first synthetic came into view. Eva raised her gun and shot it in the face. Half the head disappeared, and the arms collapsed. The puppet tried to crawl but bumped into the curve of the slide. It blocked the space, and none of the other puppets followed.

Eva headed up the ladder. She emerged onto a covered ramp. Through colored slats, Eva saw the battle.

Meladee’s creatures faced off against five other summons. The basan shielded the ice dragon. Fire poured onto its rocky wings, melting some of the surface into a glassy sheen but doing no further damage. The basan retaliated with some puffs of its own cold fire.

When the enemy dragons drew breath or snapped their jaws, Meladee’s ice dragon reared up and spit ice. One unlucky fire dragon took it down the throat. A new creature of rock, one of Meladee’s, hurried to join the group. It was a great big cat, and it swiped the first opponent it reached.

Eva left Meladee’s titans to their fun. She climbed all the way up to the highest tower, hiding well behind the colored supports and incomplete walls. She gained the upper deck and stayed low. She peered through the bars and searched the ground for mages. Eva hoped they wouldn’t have shields active, but they probably did.

For these circumstances, Eva would need her big gun. She drew the gun with the comically large barrel and spotted three mages side by side. They stood under the covered walk, sheltered by dwarven brick.

Eva aimed for the roof and shot. The bricks exploded and tumbled. When the dust cleared, Eva could see no mages, just a pile of brick. Eva smiled. So much for their magic shields.

Meladee crawled down a green tube. Her hands took on a greenish glow. She’d found the longest tube in the playground. It sloped up and then down and up again. Each time she encountered a hill, she pressed herself to the sides to make the ascent. Meladee had no idea where the tube let out. She just wanted to find it.

A puppet scuffled behind her. From the click-bang of its limbs, Meladee guessed the puppet had no trouble with the hill.

“Crap.” She paused and readied a spell.

A single rotating ring plastered itself around the tunnel’s interior. She released the spell, and the runes stretched to become something more than light. They became webby tendrils and formed a net, snaking all the way back into the tunnel.

The sound of crawling stopped.

Meladee put her hand on one of the sticky threads. Sorry if this drips on the paint, kids.

A tiny magic ring circled her chosen thread, and acid seeped from the magic. The liquid ran along the length of the web and disappeared from sight. Some acid dripped, and Meladee felt sad to see the paint peel from the pristine steel surface. She had no way to know if the puppet had been burned, but the web would dissipate soon. She had to move.

Meladee scooted forward only to see puppet legs up ahead. A puppet slid down a hill, unaware that it would find Meladee at the bottom.

Meladee mumbled a string of curse words. She waited for the puppet to reach her. When it did, she shoved its head down and sat atop it. Beneath Meladee’s hand, a magic circle pulsed and slowed the puppet’s movement. Meladee climbed atop the thing and pushed it behind her into the web. There it stuck and stayed.

Meladee crawled. She hurried over the next hill, planting her feet to better make the ascent. Then, she peered out a string of windows.

Her summons needed more help. The cat had an enemy dragon by the neck, but the cat refused to let it be, choosing to toy with its prey.

Meladee shook her head. “Aren’t they always this uncooperative.” She needed to pick something else.

She concentrated on her summon, struggling for an idea. From her magic circle sprang a gargantuan, rocky bunny.

“Oh, fu…” Meladee frowned at her botched spell.

She usually used a bunny for small jobs. Now, she’d made it giant. She needed to draw up some new summons or practice the skill under pressure.

The bunny of rock wiggled its nose. Then, it leapt. It crossed the playground in a single bound. When it landed, it squashed an enemy dragon flat. The playground shook.

Meladee’s mouth dropped open. Then, she smiled. “Rock bunny...yeah.”

She watched the bunny salute her with a wiggle of its tail. Then, she crawled ahead.

Camellia hid from the puppets. She’d climbed into a crawling gym of shapes and made her way through circles, squares, and a few tight triangles. Smaller shapes offered views to the playground outside. Camellia watched the cultists flee, but they moved beyond her location. She headed for the back of the playground, and the cultists tried to reach the exit at the front.

Soon, Camellia saw only the empty shops that ringed the park and lined the walk. She reached the final room of the gym and found the last slide out. She peered through a triangle and saw the edge of the playground. She could slide down, cross a short stretch of rubber ground, and shelter beneath the walk.

Camellia set herself up for the slide. It’d been a while, but she thought the slide seemed fairly tall.

Before Camellia could take the plunge, Alastronia’s voice echoed from the walk. “We’re supposed to get her. You find her for me and bring her back here. Don’t tell me no one saw where she went.”

Camellia watched four metal puppets, with big muscles stalk across the playground. She shrank back from the triangle and held her breathe. To her relief, they moved on, but one would probably find an entrance to her little hideout and check the structure.

Camellia slid. She landed on the rubber, glanced side to side, and darted to the walk. Archways lined the long, shaded space, and Camellia hid behind a pillar. A quick glance around told her no one had witnessed her short foray.

At the playground’s center, a battle raged. Far in the distance, Camellia saw the barrier, still active. If only the frozen residents would just wake up. They would shame the cultists back into secrecy. Camellia looked down the walk, the way she’d heard Alastronia go. If Camellia could stop Alastronia, could she stop whatever magic held the villagers frozen? Could she stop the puppets?

She began to walk the cobbles. She watched ahead and to the side for pursuit. She peeked in shops. Most were covered by curtains, but she could see the tools of a trade on one window sill: brushes, paint, and rags. Camellia kept moving.

Alastronia’s voice echoed over the playground. “Wooden servants – Kill Meladee and the golden woman. Mages – retreat before more of you get shot.”

Camellia pondered how no one knew about the Agaric Healers, and why didn’t Meladee mention them before?

She peeked inside an open window and found an empty workspace – a little print shop. She slipped over the sill, and amidst the smell of inky paper, she crouched. From her bodice, she pulled the message, given to Meladee in place of their meal check.

Camellia examined the drawing. The magic circle was unlike any she had ever seen. Instead of straight lines to connect symbols, curved paths wove like vines. The runes and pictographs didn’t sit straight in their rings, but rather some crossed, straddling the divide.

Ah’nee’thit’s seal dotted the paper, stamped in bold.

This spell is… Camellia shook her head at the complexity. Did Ah’nee’thit write this or Alastornia? She sighed and looked just above the sill. Only a few people fought, but mages could turn even a small battle into something big. I might have to do something desperate.

Camellia reached into her bag and felt the obsidian mirror, with its strange yet simple Volanter magic. She thought of the frozen villagers and Meladee’s suggestion that Alastronia was the bitchest bitch on all of Iruedim. This woman seems bad. Bad enough for this?

“Are the three of you having a good time at the playground?” Alastronia called. “How cute.”

The voice echoed over the playspace. Alastronia sounded very confident for someone who just told her mages to flee. She also sounded close, but Meladee didn’t think Alastronia walked anywhere near her location, wherever she was.

Meladee had finally found the end of the tunnel. She slid down the last bump and jumped out.

Two mages fled for the exit.

“Oh, this is too perfect.” Meladee envisioned an orange and red circle, three rings strong.

It captured the mages and erupted in a column of fire, trapping them there at the least, killing them at the best.

Meladee dusted off her hands and passed a slide. Eva popped out.

“Oh hey,” Meladee said. “How’s it going?”

“I killed four mages. You got the last two. That’s all six.” Eva cracked her staff through a wooden servant as it attacked. “I think the battle is winding down.”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here. If we can. There’s probably a bunch of mages between us and our ship now.” Meladee got behind Eva and let her friend destroy a couple more puppets. “Damn. Tagtrum is so screwed. I need a vacation.”

“I’d be more worried about my homeland if I were you.”

Meladee spread her hands. “What can I do?”

Her dragon stalked across the playground. It seemed to be the only one of her summons left.

“Fair enough,” Eva said. “Where’s Camellia? I want to take our chances to reach the ship. If we have to find and destroy that barrier generator, then so be it.”

“Damn. I thought she stayed near you.” Meladee worried their friend had gotten a bit lost, or maybe eaten by a dragon. Or, captured. Her heart quickened.

Camellia crept through a store of baubles. Glass balls and metal ornaments hung from the ceiling while whirligigs and statues clustered on the floor. The dim store, closed for lunch, had left its window open to air the smelting and glass blowing stations in the back. Camellia could not see the great ovens, but she heard voices.

Camellia knelt. She peered through a set of metal sunflowers. Slowly, she eased towards the voices. The movement didn’t come easily, but despite her daytime weakness, she still knew what to do – how to move like a predator. She prowled through the metal wares: irises, birds, smiling cats and dogs.

When the ovens came into view, Camellia stopped, concealed behind a shock of metal grass. To her surprise, there sat Alastronia, filing her nails. No cultists sat with her, just six metal puppets.

Voices from the battle echoed through a glowing necklace around Alastronia’s neck.

This woman can listen to anything we say. Probably only so long as those puppets are near. Camellia’s face flushed. She hadn’t said anything worth hearing in the last hour, but the idea of secrets on display, via Alastronia’s magic, bothered her deeply. She could examine why, peer inwards and probably find some bad memory of her father there, but why bother?

Camellia clutched her mirror. She rose and took measured steps forward.

“Oh, you’ve come to me. Wonderful.” Alastronia pointed to Camellia and ordered, “Grab High Priestess Camellia, so we can go.”

Camellia held up the obsidian mirror, but a puppet blocked Alastronia’s view. The puppet froze. Camellia expected the puppet to stop after Alastronia gazed into the device not before.

It could think?

More puppets approached. Camellia backed away and held the mirror for each of them. Every puppet looked at the mirror, and every one froze before Camellia. The puppets could think, and each entered their own private nightmare. Alastronia’s servants were more than they seemed, and Camellia had a sneaking suspicion they’d once been a lot more.

Alastronia stood, but she didn’t approach. She looked at her puppets. “Why did you stop?” she asked them.

Camellia walked past the servants, now statues. She met Alastronia’s eyes. “I’m almost not sorry about this. You seem despicable.” Camellia held the mirror at her chest level, close to her breast, and stared straight ahead.

Alastronia gave Camellia a befuddled glare, and then, she spotted the mirror. Alastronia’s eyes glazed over, and she froze to the spot.

“Serves you right.” Camellia stowed her mirror.

Meladee straightened. She’d checked one more hiding place for Camellia and didn’t find her. Meladee started to panic, but Eva tapped her arm.

Calmly, Camellia crossed the playground and joined her friends.

Meladee glanced around. All her summons had gone. The playground looked beaten. Outside the exit, once frozen people gazed in, hands over their mouths. The spell had been broken.

“Pretend we’re shocked,” Meladee whispered. She was shocked, not at the damaged play area but at the spell’s end.

Eva did her best. She narrowed her eyes and looked at the damage. She looked more like an appraiser than a shocked citizen. Thankfully, she’d put her weapons away.

“Where have you been?” Meladee asked. She stared at Camellia and thought her friend looked more melancholy than usual.

Camellia’s worried gaze roved over the damaged playground. “I think we can go now.”

“Yeah, let’s go. What happened to Alastronia? Everyone’s unfrozen.” Meladee began the walk to the exit.

Eva and Camellia followed.

“I’ll tell you on the ship,” Camellia promised.

Inside the cockpit, Camellia collapsed on a seat. She put a hand to her warm head and rested. Eva looked out the windows, likely searching for puppets and cultists. At the wheel, Meladee worked to get them on a course for Lurren.

As they rose higher, Eva turned and set her eyes on Camellia. Meladee stared from the wheel.

“I’m dying to know. What happened to Alastronia? Did you you kill her?” Meladee asked.

Eva raised her eyebrows.

Camellia sighed. “I’ll tell you all about it, but first, I’d like to know exactly who Alastronia is. I just did something horrible to her, and I want to make sure she deserved it.”

Without looking at Meladee, Eva agreed, “I want to know about her as well.”

“Like I said, she’s an Agaric Healer. They’re kind of like a guild...or a cult.” Meladee cast her gaze down to the dash. “After I left the Rime Breaker, I didn’t really have anywhere to go. I had a good chunk of money saved, but not enough to retire on. I joined the Agaric Healers. I thought it would be a good career change.” Meladee sighed. “Alastronia is one of the leaders. She recruited me. She made it look good. At first, they start you with normal healing work. I admit, most of what they do is normal. They heal people, but they demand payment. If you can pay, then you’ll probably be fine. If you can’t…” Meladee paused. With a shake of her head, she continued, “Well, at first, I was told to turn poor patients away. Then, she instructed me to offer them alternate payment options. Really bad stuff, like taking their elderly relatives or people’s pets.” Meladee paused again. This pause lasted longer. She wore a mixture of regret and relief. Finally, she spoke, “Sometimes, Alastronia wanted the least favorite child in a family. People cried the most when that happened.”

Camellia had never seen Meladee look so lost. “Go on, please.”

Meladee frowned. “What more is there? They take these vulnerable people, and they perform experiments on them. Sometimes, they even perform experiments on whole towns, but they’re pretty discreet about it. They can paralyze people with a special potion. That’s what she used on this town. It’ll wear off in a while, but until then, she can paralyze them anytime she likes. Especially if she keeps giving them poison.”

“Why haven’t you told anyone about them?” Camellia asked.

“I tried. No one believed me.”

“What’s this?” Camellia held up the paper with the magic circle.

“Pieces of different Agaric Healer spells – all mashed together.”

Camellia examined the waving lines and the runes that crossed those lines. “So, it’s not supposed to be drawn like this?”

Meladee shook her head. “No, it won’t work. I guess Ah’nee’thit wanted to send us a message but didn’t want Alastronia to know.”

Eva took the paper and examined it. She asked, “Are they suggestions for spells to use on the bigger creature?”

“Don’t know. I have to really look at it.” Meladee finally met Camellia’s eyes. “If Alastronia is a priestess for that monster...”

Camellia pondered that concern. She didn’t think Alastronia would have an easy time after a look in the mirror, but Ah’nee’thit could get a lot done with someone like Alastronia for a friend.

Camellia said, “We need to warn Adalhard about the new cultists. He needs to let the authorities know about Alastronia. We should go back.”

Eva shook her head. “No, I’ll make a small probe, and you can send him the message. For now, tell us how you defeated Alastronia.”

Camellia spread her hands. “I didn’t defeat her exactly. I showed her something.”

“Like what?” Meladee asked. “She’s seen it all.”

“Do you remember that Volanter spell I told you about?” Camellia asked.

“Dream puzzle,” Meladee gasped. “Yeah, I almost forgot about that.”

“What dream puzzle?” Eva looked between the two women.

Meladee concentrated on the controls, so Camellia met Eva’s eyes.

“I have a mirror, with a very simple magic circle drawn around the edges. It’s called an Obsidian Mirror. I’ve seen bigger ones, but the one I have is small. When you look in to it, you enter a kind of surreal game – designed from your own memories, ideas, and fears. It can be difficult to win the game.” Camellia wrung her hands. “I just showed the mirror to the puppets and Alastronia. They froze in place, trapped in their dreams. Hopefully, she’ll never find a way out.” After a short pause, Camellia added. “I think those puppets were people.”

She raised her eyes to Meladee and hoped for an answer.

Eva cocked her head. “Can they find a way out? Is that likely? If so, you should have killed her.”

Camellia put her hands in her lap and looked down. “I’d say over half of the people who see the mirror, don’t return to reality. It seems the worse a person is, the less likely they are to get free.” Camellia remembered several Vetoin vampires, all sitting together in a room, trapped in their own minds. She hadn’t known their crimes, but she did know they faced punishment. And, of course, there was Sorin, her partner archaeologist. He hadn’t freed himself either.

“So, she could get out,” Eva said.

“She could, but she wouldn’t be the same. I would know.”

Satisfied, Eva said, “I’d better make that probe, but Alastronia may be taken care of.” Eva exited the cockpit.

Meladee raised her eyes from the helm and promised, “Well, you don’t have to worry about me looking at your magic mirror now. If it can take out Alastronia, I won’t ever be tempted.”

Meladee paused, and Camellia thought the conversation was done.

Meladee’s next words proved her wrong. “Hey, I’ve just been wondering...why do you have it? Have you...looked at it?”

Camellia raised her eyes. “It’s not really important why I have it, but yes, I’ve looked.” Camellia got up and followed Eva below, escaping Meladee’s next question before it could be asked. She knew what it would be. What did you see?