“It felt like forever being stuck like that, unable to lift a finger to help Pedro. The boy hacked away bits of his body until he collapsed like his strings were cut,” Gabriella couldn’t bear to look any of them in the eye, “And after having his way with the stores of food in the kitchen he let me know exactly what he wanted from the rest of the town. ‘It’d be easier if you all just cooperate. Gather the youngest you have and bring them back to the diner here. If you can do that for me, I’ll leave the rest of the town alone and drift on.’ He told me with this sick grin on his face.”

“Did he cast his spell with a book or disc around him or did he just take control with a flick of his wrist.” Nora inquired.

“He literally muttered something under his breath in a language I didn’t understand and pointed at the door. I don’t know when he’d done the same thing to me but I was suddenly under his spell.” Gabriella struggled to get through her statement.

So it was a slotted command spell. That just compounded on the unknowns.

“So you gather the rest of your town while the man sits in your diner. How long did it take for you to mobilize your mob to confront him with Ernesto’s little trinkets?” Nora asked.

“We made the decision to fight back on the third day. We… we were fucking foolish to think we could do something after what I’d seen him do.” Gabriella said in dejected fashion.

Nora shrugged her shoulders, “You all were cornered rats. You did what you thought would wound the snake in your den. And the sacrifices weren’t in vain.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, you gathered your tools and faced him head on. How many of you were there, what did he do to Ernesto, what did he do to the rest of you, and how did you escape?” Nora fired off a series of rapid fire questions, the timeline of events and the severity of their situation becoming clearer with each detail.

“Miss Antierre, I think you’re pushing Gabriella a little too hard.” Lilliana chimed in, gently placing her hand on Nora’s shoulder to ease up.

Nora scoffed, “She hasn’t been pushed hard enough. I don’t even need to see the look in her eyes to know how terrified she must have been making her statement to the rest of the town and becoming a beacon to rally behind,” She adjusted herself in her seat, “No one really understands the terror of facing a wizard until something gets taken from them. Their control. Their sense of reality. Abstract concepts to the untalented lot still banging rocks to make the monsters go away.”

She could feel the vitriol welling up within her, at the situation and their desperation. At herself.

Gabriella broke her silence, “We were a group of fifteen and of those fifteen, only six of us managed to make it out. We noticed things were different the moment we stepped by Julietta’s home near downtown and instead of the abandoned storefronts with crack glass and worn mannequins, we saw it had been repaired and layered over with this polished red brick. It was like walking into another world.”

The domain was growing as soon as the 3rd day. Where he anchored the epicenter would be-

“Where’d you find him? He didn’t find you, did he?” Nora followed up her train of thought.

“Yes. He was still sitting at the diner but it was different. It was larger like the kinds of diners you’d find in pictures of what the 50s were like. Neon sign for ‘Lazy Laz’s’. Red trimming on a large white building. He was waiting outside for us wearing a fixed suit. Same colors, same hairstyle and smile…”

“And how far is that diner from that woman's home, er Julietta?”

Gabriella paused for a moment, “I’d say it's 3 or 4 blocks out from the diner?”

With growth like that…

Nora turned her attention to Lilliana, “Hey, you’re the one keeping the church warded of his influence, right?”

“Yes! Yes. A passing wizard from the AWW came to the town a few years ago and taught me a few tricks that wouldn’t require me to contact those… things.” Lilliana was eager to offer whatever she could in the conversation.

“And since Laz took over, how often have you been checking on the perimeter of the wards?”

“We set up the perimeter when Gabriella and the rest of them came back to us. We were scared he’d attack us so the flock agreed that I could help and the wards were fine at first but…” Liliana hesitated and then shook her head, “It wasn’t until two days ago that the devils borders stopped just short of this church. I have to go reinforce the ward’s with new passages every six hours or I start to feel this heavy strain on my very being.”

Nora turned her attention back to Gabriella, “Magic. I heard he sculpted Ernesto’s flesh. Pedro had his face fucked with too. Maybe the same spell. And the puppeteering spells. Did he use anything else?” There was a frustrated unease brewing within Nora and the predicament she’d thrown herself into.

“He had a few ghosts around town who were acting like citizens, heading into storefronts and sometimes we could hear whispers of their conversations. And there were the two things next to him. Meat shaped like people with bones poking out and fetid flesh sagging at all ends although he didn’t use any of them. When we tried to fight, Ernesto used a wand he had and shot these pink projectiles at him. The man cried out for help and layers of gurgling meat took the brunt of the blow. That’s all I could remember before some of us started running.” Gabriella deflated at the end of her retelling.

Nora got up from her seat without another word and walked out. She could hear Liliana call out to her, asking what was wrong, but the blood was welling up in her ears and she needed some fresh air.

You have to do something about this.

Something shouldn’t be a pointless sacrifice. Nora and the Father locked eyes for a moment before she tore her gaze away and charged the front door, taking in a fresh lungful of air, attempting to center herself around the task at hand.

Footsteps trailed behind her, “Miss Antierre! You’ve got the flock riled up. What seems to be the issue?” Father Vincente called out to her.

The issue was that most of them were fucked. That it would have been easier for them to turn in their kids for whatever in the world he was looking to use them for and move on with their lives to provoke the ire of a localized god.

“Level 6. I said the best I’d be able to handle for this town was a level 6. And those were with preconditions,” Nora turned to face the Father, some of the braver congregants fighting for a spot to watch things unfold at the doorway, “That the opponent wasn’t some defensive powerhouse. That they hadn’t the time to establish a fucking domain to play around in. That-that we had the element of surprise on our side.” Nora could feel the frustration welling up inside of her beginning to boil over.

“I don’t understand, Miss Antierre but you’re scaring myself and the others.” His eyes were caring and his hand was outstretched to soothe her from that anguish.

She slapped the hand away.

“That’s right, you don’t get it. So let me explain for the rest of the class, alright? The domain he’s made around himself is going to make his spells stronger and opposing spells weaker. So I’m already on the backfoot with the size of the damn thing. And I can’t try to persuade him to leave because he’s already set root in the town! He has a plan and it involved those kids and now he won’t let go because you all were so stupid thinking your toys would harm a hair on his damn head.” Nora’s voice was raw and guttural.

She was being so stupid right now. She cared a little, just enough that even now her damn slot was whispering for her to do something for them.

“He took my brother!” From behind the crowd emerged the girl Nora had rescued earlier that day. Anna-Marie? She scrambled past the crowd with her mother trying to follow behind her daughter to little avail. “We were trying to get some toys at the convenience store for the smaller kids.”

She stopped her account, taking the time to calm herself and breath as she stared Nora dead in the face.

“We’d been sneaking out to town since Saturday. The adults wouldn’t tell us what was happening and we were bored in the church all day so we snuck out and explored around town.”

A day after their plan of attack failed, Nora pieced together.

Anna-Marie continued, “It was like walking around with 3-D glasses. We’d pick something up and it’d have this stuff over what it was meant to be.”

Nora gestured for her to get on with it.

“Yesterday we were walking around and saw some adults walking around. Looking for us. In all the shops we’d visited before. They hadn’t acted like this before and I was scared something might happen but my older brother’s a brave and stupid lughead. Said they weren’t a problem before so… so why would they be now.”

They were able to walk around under his nose then? What tipped him off?

“So they found you two and took your brother?” Nora cut to the quick.

Anna-Marie nodded.

They’d given him a resource and territory. But…

“Why weren’t you taken with your brother?” Nora asked.

“The moment my brother was in their hands they just stopped trying to reach out for me. There were five of them and they each grabbed a piece of Thomas while he cried out for help. He kept crying out for me but what could I do?” Anna-Marie's face was sloppy wet with tears and mucus running rampant.

Nora’s anguish and frustration subsided as a new cork was applied. She’d need to save it.

“And you ran back in today to try to find him and got caught.” Nora’s voice was softer now.

“Yeah. I went back to where they took him and tried to follow the trail I had on where they were going but I was ambushed. And then I panicked and started crying for help.”

And then she was saved by what this wizard could do.

Nora turned her attention to the Father.

“You need to evacuate your people out of town.” Nora declared, loud enough for the pig-headed congregants to hear.

Father Vincente furrowed his brows, “But Miss Antierre, Cienmiedos is our home and we’re safe at the church. My wife-”

“Your wife is coming out here every six hours just to maintain the barrier. And by the growth rate of his domain, the amount of pressure placed on that poor woman's body to keep the rest of you alive would kill her in two days. Three days if y’all were lucky.”

“But my wife hasn’t mentioned any of this!” The Father was caught unawares.

“Why would she let you know? You and the rest of you miserable fucks gave her the chance to help out and she did. She’d suffer for the rest of you if it meant you’d genuinely fold her in instead of giving all these hollow pleasantries. At least the old bag had some genuine backbone to her.” Nora spat on the ground.

“Where will we go Miss Antierre? The roads are unsafe and Immockalee is a several hour walk. If the wildlife won’t get us…” He didn’t finish his thought.

But frankly it didn’t matter. They’d kill the poor woman from the mental strain if they remained. And then they’d get taken over.

“Carry around Ernesto’s little trinkets and pray to your Lords and Ladies to find safe passage if they’re willing to listen to your selfish shit. I’m going to send a message to the AWW and hope that we have someone capable of handling a threat like this because I’m in over my own damn head if I think I can handle a wizard of this caliber.”

The congregants were angry. They were furious at being told they’d have to leave their homes. But none of them had the spine to argue with Nora because deep down, they were hoping for a miracle. For the amount of stars they had collected to be enough to hire an Incant of sufficient strength. Even if they were evenly matched, the domain and the ritual Nora was certain this wizard was performing handedly set her and any other Incant assigned to this mission on a permanent back foot.

“Gather your kids. Gather your shit. And walk to the next town over. Leave the sick and the wounded behind. Just struggle to make it to safety.” Nora’s voice rang with a cold unwavering conviction. “This kid’s given y’all the luxury of an escape with her story. Gabriella too.”

Nora reached into her bag and pulled out a postcard sized slip of paper. On one end held the circular runes for the spell embedded within. She wrote on the blank end, “Need reinforcements at this location. Assumed threat level for a level six rogue wizard. Domain established. Ritual in the works. Immediate assistance requested. Nora Antierre.”

She focused her energy on the card and sent it off to the nearest AWW post with an emergency flag attached. But that wouldn’t be the end. Nora pulled the knife that the late Ernesto had left behind and performed a few cursory slashes, hoping her physical combat drills would be of some use once again.

“What do you plan to do, Miss Antierre?” The Father inquired.

“The only thing I have a chance at stopping; if he wanted kids, he’d want more than one. With just one in his hold, I can see him either altering his ritual to make due with the one or overwhelm your wife's barrier and take over.” Nora explained. It was a nagging issue she had, about why the man had made no attempt to assault the church with a direct assault against a wizard who’s threshold was barely serviceable as a level one Incant.

“He’s reserving his strength and setting himself up for conditions on the next ritual. If I have a chance, it’ll be by messing him up when he’s preoccupied with that.” Nora adjusted her bag and walked out of the threshold towards uncertainty.

Hopefully they’d listen.