Heretical Edge

Fossor wouldn't be gone forever, of course. We'd have to hurry to finish this before he felt satisfied that he'd found all my spell bombs and came back. But for the moment, we had a little bit of breathing room to free the civilians and find that rift. As long as we didn't sit on our thumbs.

Or rather, we would, just as soon as we dealt with Saign and his people. Saign, the guy who was supposed to be bonded from me. Or to me, or… whatever, the guy who had a blood bond with me, which I still didn't have any time to actually sit and think about. If it was true, then I was just… fuck, I didn't know. I had no idea how to feel about it. Was I responsible for what he did? How did he end up Bonding off of me? Why was he using his power to hurt people? How did-- fuck, I really wished we didn't have this damn Fossor time limit so I could take as long as needed to get to the bottom of it.

As for Saign himself, the man was watching me with a look of curiosity mixed with amusement. If he was bothered by what I had done to get rid of Fossor, he didn't show it. A few of his men briefly looked like they were going to try something, but he just waved them off. Whether that was because he didn't want to risk getting into a fight with us, or because he didn't care about what happened with Fossor, I had no idea. But either way, the guy clearly wasn't about to start a fight.

Before focusing on that, I used a couple ghosts to quickly check in on the twins. They had been making their way around the camp, carefully disabling the anti-teleportation defenses bit by bit. While those were up, I was able to transport myself into the area, but I wouldn't be able to leave. And I definitely couldn't get those civilians out of here. That was why I'd needed to keep all of Fossor's attention on me, and why I needed to keep the rest of their attention, since the twins weren't done yet. So, I finally spoke up, my tone as casual as I could make it. "Do you think he'll be angrier if you run away like cowards, or if you try to attack me and risk taking away his chance at personal revenge?" I let that hang for just a second before adding, "The answer is C, both of the above. He's the type to get pissed off no matter what you do. It's really hard to win with that guy. But the actual question is, which one of us do you think is gonna hurt you the most right now if you try something?" My hand rose, fingers poised to snap once more. "Which one is going to use those cannons again, this time while they're aimed at something other than the ground?"

Even as I said that, Seth was making the Cryptseeker reveal itself. The skull-shaped ship with its bone arms and tattered cape forcefield hovered there in plain view, making it clear just how easily it could open fire on these guys if they decided to push their luck. I really didn't have time to get into a prolonged confrontation with them. Every second we wasted with this was another chance for Fossor to finish cleaning up his home so he could get back here. If they didn't surrender in--

"Well, see, there's a problem with that," Saign was saying. The man sounded fairly calm, but there was a slight hint of an edge to his voice that told me he was putting on a show. There was obvious anger there, right below the surface. Whatever his deal was, he sure didn't like what was happening right now. "Fossor may be gone, but like you said, he'll be pretty angry if we just let you walk away with all his sacrifices." His hand gestured toward those civilians, still trapped in that enclosure. "We went through all this trouble to… tenderize these people, to get them just afraid enough for his enchantments to work. We had to break their willpower over time, see. Had to scare them, play with them, make them accept ol' Doctor Foss's help whenever he came into town. We played bandits, kept them scared, and Doctor Foss strolled in every now and then to fix them up and offer protection spells to keep us away for a little bit. Spells that those dumbshits accepted-- hell, they paid for them. But the spells actually just prepped them to be sacrificed to that big bundle of magic energy you've both been looking for. So sure, he's not here right now. But all we have to do is kill those people in that cage over there to trigger the spell he put together, send all that power into that energy ball, and Fossor gets what he wants. I think he'll still be pretty happy with us then, don't you? You could open fire with the Cryptseeker, but I don't think you can kill all of us before we do our part. That's the thing about Bystanders. They just die so easily. It doesn't take much."

"And yet, you're still talking about it," I pointed out while checking on the twins once more. They were almost done. Just a few more seconds and they'd have all those spells disabled. "I'd think if you really wanted to make your master happy, you would've just done it by now." I was trying not to think about why he knew the name of my ship. Obviously he had a history with me at some point. Was that just from one of my other iterations at another rift? How had he ended up spending enough time with me to be bonded, and learn about my ship? I just-- I had so many questions, but there wasn't enough time to get into it before Fossor came back. Besides, I felt like it wasn't a good idea to let him know that I had no clue who he was. That was the biggest reason I wasn't asking more questions, I didn't want him to realize how little I really knew.

On the plus side, while I wasn't sure what to say right then without giving too much away, Saign was seemingly fine with talking. "Those little girls back at the town, they were a few of your strays, weren't they? I really should've known, they just… smelled like you. What did you do, send them to scout this energy--" He stopped abruptly, chin lifting as a noise of realization escaped.

"Oooh, well, that explains some things, doesn't it?" His voice seemed to change, similar to how it had back in the town when he'd started saying things like 'tally ho' and 'jolly good' right before leaving. In this case, the guy sounded like-- well honestly, he kinda sounded more feminine right there? I wasn't sure how to explain it even to myself, but there was a definite femininity to his speech. "This, ahhh, energy, it's one of your… rifts, isn't it?"

Not only did he sound more feminine then, he moved more like a woman. A seductive one, sliding a bit closer to me before working his way around to the side. "Which means… oh. Oh, you're not-- you don't…" Slowly, the man's head tilted. "You have no idea who I am, do you?" A tittering giggle escaped him as he backed away, casually cracking his neck as he paced closer to that fence that was keeping those people trapped. "You're just here to go through that rift, that's what it is. That's the energy that-- oooh, now that's interesting. But if that energy is one of those rifts, what do you suppose would happen to it if we hit the thing with all these… positively tasty sacrifices?" His hand moved to brush teasingly along the fence.

Slowly, deliberately, I took several long steps right up to where the man was standing. He watched me come, making a sharp gesture with one hand to stop his people when they nervously raised their weapons toward the hostages. There was a slight smirk on his face, like he was amused and wanted to see just what I was doing. God, I wanted to smack it right off.

Instead, I stepped right up to him until we were face to face. My voice was deceptively calm. "If you actually knew anything about me, if we were bonded by anything other than a discarded, forgotten bit of blood, you would know exactly how bad of an idea threatening those people was. My name is Jacob. I have crossed this world, moving through rifts, stepping from one time to the next. I have seen humanity grow from their huts and their caves, to reaching across the stars. I have seen every tyrant, every beast, every despot and butcher who thought they would be the one to grind the people of this world to dust. I have seen every single being who thought to crown themself ruler of this place. And in the end, do you know what they all had in common?"

I leaned forward just a little, so I could say the next part quietly, right next to his ear. "Every last one of them… is so goddamn easy to distract."

The twins took that second to disable the last of the anti-transport runes. Just like that, there was nothing stopping me from teleporting. So, I did, vanishing from that spot before reappearing right in the middle of the hostages. At the same time, the Cryptseeker opened fire once more, and that time it definitely wasn't aiming for the ground. Well, most of the guns weren't. There were still two of the smaller, rapid-firing ones pointed that way to deliberately kick a bunch of dust and debris into the air. Beyond that and the ghosts that Wordsmith unleashed and began to direct, most of Saign's people were busy. Most of them.

But most wasn't all. Which meant there really wasn't time to calm these screaming, panicking civilians down. Not when the few of those troops out there who weren't distracted or diving for cover were already starting to take pot shots this way. Ignoring the cries of terror for the moment, I focused once more and transported everyone I could carry in that moment, about a third of the prisoners, up into the cargo bay of the ship. Without a word, I dropped them off there and returned, teleporting back as quickly as I could.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Even then, it wouldn't have been fast enough. Not for all of those people. We'd started out with just over a hundred civilians in that cage, and there were still about sixty of them left. Or there had been. Saign's thugs, the couple who weren't blinded or being attacked by Wordsmith's ghosts, had opened fire on the innocent people in there, determined to trigger those sacrifices. I had been focused on teleporting, while Wordsmith summoned and directed the ghosts. Between the two of us, we were doing everything we could and it still wasn't enough to save all of those people.

But it wasn't just the two of us. The twins were there too. Even as those few troops who were still focused on the prisoners started shooting into that crowd, a series of steel walls rose from the ground around those panicking, terrified civilians, absorbing an assortment of bullets and lasers. Sands had appeared, sweeping her mace up to summon those walls. At the same time, one of those bastards reeled and dropped from a shot that came out of nowhere, blowing through his throat. A second later, another guy went down. Sarah, doing her sniper thing.

Taking that much in through the very brief time it took for me to focus and teleport the next group, I kept telling myself to move faster, faster. A single lucky shot, someone down there using something explosive, a power that could cut through those walls, some sort of fire, anything that could do area damage, could end up killing some or all of those people. I didn't have time to rest, to think about what or who Saign really was and why he knew so much. And I sure as hell didn't have time to focus on just how bad it would be if Fossor showed up again. We had to get all of these people the hell out of here right fucking now.

To that end, I took the last group up to the ship, including the twins. As soon as we were all aboard, while the troops down there were still trying to regroup and recover from the sudden assault that had technically started only about ten seconds earlier, I sent the command to Seth to go. And just like that, the ship took off, leaving the encampment behind. Wordsmith was already recalling the ghosts. Not all of them had made it through that. Those fucks had been prepped with ghost-fire. Some of my people had gone down. They would come back, obviously. Ghost-fire didn't destroy them for good. But it would take some time for them to reform. Not to mention the pain. They had been hurt by it, which just made me feel even more guilty for sending them into that. And yet, what choice did I have? We had to save these people. Even if it meant putting my ghosts in danger. Even if it meant allowing them to get hurt.

Every time I did this, every time I threw my ghosts into a fight like that, it made me just a little more afraid that I could turn into Fossor, that I could start seeing them as just… tools. They weren't. They mattered. They were still people. I could never let myself use them the way he had. But the guilt of seeing how many of them were gone for now, of feeling and realizing the pain they had been put through just to do what I'd asked them to…

It made me angry.

Angry enough that, as Sands started to ask what we were going to do now, I waved her off. Nor did I respond to all the civilians we had just saved as they clamored for answers, their fear and confusion filling the cargo bay. I would answer them soon enough, but for now, I ignored them. Well, most of them. One guy in particular, an old farmer type with a straw hat and overalls was a different story. I walked right up to him, in front of the others, and grabbed his arm with one hand and the denim fabric with the other. Without giving him any other warning, I pivoted and threw him across the room. He went flying a good fifty feet before slamming into the metal wall. As strong as I was, even without boosting myself in any way, the man collided with it pretty hard.

All of that probably wouldn't have done much to make these people stop being terrified, and if I had been thinking straight, I would've gone about it differently. But having Fossor so close, being face to face with him like that, knowing he could come back any time and having the stress of the rift situation on top of everything… yeah, I wasn't in the best mood. But before anyone else could really react to what I had just done, they saw the man I had hurled across the room transform right in front of their eyes. The supposed kooky old farmer appearance melted away, leaving us looking at a familiar figure with dark orange, scaly skin.

I was already there, grabbing Saign once more and hauling him off the deck. "Did you really think I wouldn't have a ghost keeping an eye on you so I'd know what you were doing? Like I'd let you just shapeshift your way out of this. Speaking of which, why don't you turn all this off so we can see your pretty face?" If he had bonded to me, he was human under the scales, that much was obvious.

The civilians, who had started to cry out when they saw me attack what had looked like one of their own, fell silent and just stared when he was revealed to be the man who had tormented them for so long. He, in turn, gave a soft, somewhat pained chuckle before those orange scales melted away as well. Which left me looking at a slim, somewhat handsome guy with dark blond hair and mismatched eyes, one brown and one green. He spoke in a casual tone. "Well, we are pleased to see that you're keeping up with basic security precautions, anyway."

"We?" I started to echo, before realizing what he meant.

We, us, plural, bonded-linked, Wordsmith put in, both of us getting it at the same time.

"Just the same we it's always been," Saign confirmed, his mismatched gaze locked on mine. "Ever since the first of me bathed in your blood. I don't get your Necromancy, I'm not special enough. But I get you. So many of you. Every time something happens, every time I feel different, every time I get too many powers, another of me appears. Another me in my head. Another me that used to be one of you. You have so many of you inside, and I keep getting more too. We keep getting more, keep becoming more. All of them, all of me, inside this head. Inside here." He tapped his own forehead. "They grow, they show up, they appear and then they're always a part of us."

Wait, he was getting members of the Flique? Or, well, his own multiples? What did that have to do with being bonded to me? Was this-- how was-- wait, what? Now I was even more confused. Sure, it explained why his personality kept changing, but seriously, huh? If this guy was really just a product of being bonded to me, why would he get his own version of the Flique? That wasn't a power, was it? It was a result of my specific situation. Had that somehow developed into an actual power or whatever when… when I was bonded to someone? What did that--how did--wait, what?

Part of me wanted to throw this guy out the airlock and be done with it, whether he survived or not. Another part wanted to get answers out of him.

He cannot or should not be killed-murdered-eliminated, Wordsmith gently pointed out. Ehn's stone-gem has already indicated and shown that he is important to the timeline. And we do not know enough to make the judgment otherwise.

She was right, obviously. So, I settled on passing the guy off to several of my ghosts, including Doctor Manakel. I instructed them to take him to the brig and keep an eye on the guy. I also told them, aloud so he could hear, that if he did anything unexpected they should rip his throat out. I would figure out how to deal with him in a minute. Right now, we needed to focus on these civilians.

They were all huddled up together, every person from that town. All the ones who were still alive, anyway. We had gotten out of there with everyone in that cage, but I was positive that others had died before we ever showed up. Either from Fossor and his people 'experimenting' with that sacrificial magic, or just for the hell of it, to scare the others. Which was another reason why I'd really needed to have Saign taken out of my sight.

The point was, the ones who were left were terrified and confused. My mouth opened to say something to them, before I sighed. "Right, the Bystander Effect. Whatever I say, you won't retain for long. And I can't send you back home or Fossor will just…" A sigh escaped me. "Wait, first thing's first, you're safe. You're all safe, I promise. We're gonna put you down… somewhere and let you go. You'll be fine. But you can't go back to your town, because the leader of those guys will come back and… and he'll kill all of you. I'm sorry. We have to take you somewhere else, but we'll make sure you're safe."
They looked uncertain, but at least somewhat relieved. They also started asking a lot of very reasonable and pointed questions, which I had to cut off with a raised hand before looking at the twins. "How do we do this? Where do we take them?"

Sarah shrugged, offering a hesitant, "Laramie Falls?"

I blinked at that, "Laramie--oh. Wait, I… huh. I guess they'd be safe there, and it would be nice to check in on how the place is progressing at this point. Sure, we need to make it pretty quick, cuz I don't think it'll take Fossor more than a couple hours to make sure he's completely cleaned all the spells out of his place, but let's do it.

"We're taking these people to Laramie Falls."