Heretical Edge

Getting called out to a farm because someone's livestock had been disappearing wasn't exactly a brand new occurrence for the sheriff of Laramie Falls, Wyoming. What was just a bit unusual was the fact that six cows had disappeared in the exact same evening, with no visible damage to the fence, no signs of any truck, and no cow tracks to follow. Half a dozen cattle just poofed.

Standing by that completely intact fence, Joselyn Atherby squinted at the empty area where the cows apparently should have been. The blonde woman wore no uniform, since it was supposed to be her day off. A day off that had been at least temporarily cancelled when she got a call from one of her deputies about this. That deputy, and several others, had already been out here for a few hours trying to figure out what had happened to no avail. There was talk of aliens, which she knew had to be headed off before it went too far and the whole town ended up turning into the butt of jokes. Honestly, aliens abducting cows? The town really didn't need to get a rep like that.

"And you're going to tell me, right to my face, that you weren't drinking last night? You don't have any sort of prank war going on with your neighbors? You genuinely have no idea what could have happened to your cows? No idea whatsoever?" It might have sounded harsh or confrontational, but Joselyn knew the man in question too well not to ask. It wouldn't have been the first time a joke went too far. Especially in the farms outside town, where locals often combined boredom and alcohol to create new and exciting situations that had to be dealt with.

The man in question, an aging hippy-type in his early sixties with a long gray-brown beard and a slightly heavy-set form named Dennis Corrim, heaved a long sigh. "Sheriff, I told you, it wasn't the Petersons or the Eatons, damn their souls and spit in their eyes. I know it wasn't them, you see, because there ain't a one of them that has a damned flying car. If they came to take the cows, there'd be tire tracks. If they led the cows out somewhere else, there'd be cow tracks. On my life, this ain't no trick, no game, no prank. Some weird shit's going on, Sheriff Chambers."

"Alright, alright, I believe you," Joselyn assured him with a raised hand. "Sorry, you know I had to ask. So the cows were here when you went to bed last night around eleven, then you got up at five this morning and they were gone. You didn't see or hear anything unusual at all all night?"

There was a brief pause before Dennis admitted, "Okay, there was one sorta weird thing. Wind." When Joselyn raised an eyebrow, he clarified. "Right as I went to sleep, I heard this big blast of wind, just a couple gusts like whoosh, whoosh. They knocked all my windchimes off. Made a big racket, really slammed into the windows. I thought I was just dreaming it, but the chimes were on the porch when I got up. And the chair I keep out there was on its side like it got knocked over. I didn't really think about it after I saw the cows were gone, but now I'm thinking it must've been the aliens landing. They came outta the sky and the wind blew off my chimes. Not just on the house either, it blew 'em all off the barn over there. You know how I love my chimes."

Joselyn closed her eyes briefly, telling herself not to completely discount everything he said. Wind could be something. He hadn't said anything about the roar of a helicopter, but maybe some sort of stealth chopper? Oh right, yeah, a stealth chopper that stole his cows. She was losing it. But how would six cows disappear overnight with no sign of anything being here?

There was a logical explanation for this, obviously. There had to be. Joselyn wasn't sure what it could be, assuming Dennis was telling the truth, and she didn't think he was the type to outright lie to her face. He might think something like this would be a fun joke, but he wouldn't take it this far. Still, just because he said there were no signs of anyone on his property didn't mean the man hadn't missed something. After all, he was mostly focused on the pen itself, and the road leading up to it from the completely intact fence. There might be something else on the property.

So, after telling Dennis to go back to his house and wait for her (she didn't want him making the situation worse if she actually found someone hiding with his cows), Joselyn started to search the rest of the area, in a gradually expanding circle out from the empty pen. She was looking for any sign that someone had been there, that cows had been led through the dirt, anything at all.

Unfortunately, there was nothing. She searched the entire property, and there was absolutely no sign of anything untoward. There was just… wait. Stopping mid-step as she made her way to the back of the barn yet again, Joselyn slowly turned her head to look that way. Her eyes were focused intently on one spot, narrowing as she stared at a single wind chime. In any other case, it would have seemed pretty innocuous, just hanging there from the barn. But it was definitely in range of whatever had knocked all the other chimes off. She could see other chimes laying on the ground, just like Dennis had said. That one, however, was still hanging there, untouched.

Okay, well, she didn't have anything better. With a mental shrug, Joselyn walked that way. She went up to the hanging chimes, reaching out to gently touch them with just the tip of her finger. Maybe they had fallen down and someone picked them up as they passed? There could be prints on them. Or maybe whatever 'wind' had knocked the other chimes down was angled just right so these ones weren't affected? Her gaze shifted to look at the pen, judging the angle to it.

But then she wasn't looking at the pen. She wasn't looking at any part of the farm at all, in fact. She was inside a very large cave. It happened so suddenly, the transition from standing by the barn to being in a cavern, that Joselyn yelped and spun. Her hand grabbed the pistol at her hip and yanked it free. She had it up and pointed at… at nothing. She was in a giant cave that seemed to be lit by dozens of glowing rocks scattered through the chamber, but no one else was here. How? How did she get here? Was she drugged? Did someone-- was there something on the chimes, some sort of toxin that got into her skin? What else could it be? How could she be--

"You passed!" The words came out of nowhere, making Joselyn jump even as she spun with her gun extended and very nearly pulled the trigger. But she caught herself, her training kicking in as she saw just who she was aiming at, the source of the voice that nearly gave her a heart attack.

"Dennis!?" Blurting his name, Joselyn started to lower the gun, but hesitated and frowned. "What did you do? What-- how did you…" She couldn't even put words to it. The whole thing was just absurd. She couldn't have been standing out by the barn one second, then just appear in this cave the next. Things didn't work like that. Reality didn't work like that. She must have been drugged and woke up here, or… or-- oh yeah, she did walk down here, didn't she? She had found this cave while she was searching the property, and made her way down to see if the cows had wandered in this far. That was what happened. How could she have forgotten that?

Making a face as he took in her expression, Dennis sighed. "It's already rewriting things isn't it? That's one annoying spell, I tell you what. I bet it's having trouble though. Always does around me. Like it tries to tiptoe cuz it knows I don't like the damn thing." He took in a breath, then gave a loud, "Knock it off!" His voice echoed through the cave, reverberating unnaturally off the walls.

Just as Joselyn's mouth opened to tell him to stop shouting, she felt some sort of… force wash over her. And just like that, the entire false memory of having found the cave and walked down into it was gone. She remembered the truth, the real truth. She had been right the first time. She touched that windchime and immediately ended up in this place. But how-- why had she-- what?

Rocking backward on her heels, Joselyn made a noise of confusion and disbelief before her hand tightened on the gun just before it could drop from her grasp. Instead, she snapped it back into line with the man in front of her, demanding, "What the hell is going on? What did you do?"

If he was worried about the gun, Dennis didn't show it. He simply smiled broadly. "What's going on is that you passed! I had to test you. I had to check your intelligence, your perception, had to see just how much you actually paid attention. I set up the mystery and left only one way for you to pass. You could've given up, you could've brushed it off, missed the clue, walked away from it all. But you didn't! You found the windchime, you passed the test, and now you're here. You win!"

"Dennis," Joselyn started very carefully through gritted teeth. "I need you to slow down and tell me exactly what is going on. If you can't be very clear, I'm going to arrest you and have both of us tested for… for everything. What are you talking about?" Somewhat reluctantly, she put the pistol away. Whatever was actually happening, he didn't seem to be violent. Something told her this wasn't exactly a situation that would be solved by shooting anyone. No matter how tempting it was.

"I would tell you," the man informed her, still smiling in a way that seemed completely genuine. "But in this case, it's probably better if I start by showing you and we work our way through from there."

Joselyn was about to demand to know what he meant by that, when he did as promised and showed her. The woman had to stand there watching in shock as his entire body suddenly began to glow and get bigger. A lot bigger. She jerked backward against the wall of the cave as the figure in front of her transformed into something enormous. Something she had only ever seen in fantasy.

He was a dragon, a truly giant serpentine figure who towered over her and gazed at the woman below with a slight knowing smirk.

After staring at him in silence for a couple seconds, Joselyn let out a breath and turned to face the wall while muttering to herself. "Yup, I am definitely on drugs. My body probably has more happy pills than blood right now."

There was a light chuckle from behind her before the much deeper version of Dennis's voice informed her. "I promise, you have not been drugged. You have, however, been suffering under a different mind altering effect for some time now. More than one, actually. But we're going to put a stop to that right now. Let's just say there's so much going on, so much coming up, that I need to tilt the scales a little bit. Hehehe, you get it? Tilt the scales. And what better way to do that than with someone like you? Someone they went through so much trouble to stick somewhere out of the way."

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

A thought came to Joselyn then. Yes, it was completely absurd to think that this could be real. Something was wrong with her brain. But on the other hand, in the slightest, most ridiculous chance that there could be anything to it, her husband and daughter would never forgive her if she didn't get as much information as possible. They'd want her to describe exactly what she saw, every single detail. Between that and her police training, she was able to school herself enough to turn around and face the creature once more. She was trembling a bit, unable to completely control the shivers of confusion and fear even as she took in the full sight of him once more.

"There we are," the giant dragon encouraged with another smile. "Now, first things first. I need you to get back to being your old self. Well, a better version of your old self. Let's see what we can do about that."

He raised one of his massive paws (Was a dragon's foot called a paw? The fact that she had to seriously think about that almost made her collapse in hysterical giggles), making the woman flinch a little, but he didn't reach for her. Instead, the dragon reached up to his own mouth, and carefully used two claws to grab one of his teeth and yanked it free while she made a noise of complete bewilderment and dismay.

"Don't hurt yourself!" Joselyn found herself blurting as she took a quick step that way as though she could actually stop whatever he was doing.

Holding that tooth in his claws as it dripped greenish blood, the dragon that had been Dennis at one point offered her a bright smile that showed so many teeth. "You see!? That right there is exactly why I would choose you. That and all the other reasons. There's more than a few. You're very impressive, for a human."

Her mouth opened to ask what he meant by that, but before any sound could emerge, the mythological creature who couldn't possibly actually be here reached out with that tooth in his claws. The tooth itself was a couple feet long and visibly dangerous. But he didn't push it toward her. Instead, he crushed the tooth between his claws, craving a cloud of thick dust and blood. Before Joselyn could even hope to react, the dragon blew out, sending a rush of wind that sent the bone dust and blood into her face. It filled the woman's eyes and mouth. She coughed and sputtered, reeling backwards against the rock wall while it all got into her. She could feel the bone dust in her, could feel her body reacting to it. She felt… She felt…

Strong.

*********

Joselyn Chambers remembered everything. She remembered being Joselyn Atherby. She remembered how she had grown up, what happened to her parents-- at least as much as she was allowed to remember. She remembered being part of Crossroads, and then not being part of Crossroads. She remembered her entire life, including everything that it happened to take her out of it and put her in this new situation.

A situation that could've been so much worse. A situation she wasn't about to run away from just like that. Yes, she remembered everything, and she had so much to do. Especially now that she had been bonded to a dragon. But the fact was, she loved her new family. She wouldn't walk away from Lincoln and Felicity. She was going to need to explain everything to them soon. She was still deciding exactly how to do that, how she was going to tell them what the world was really like.

And, of course, she had to plan exactly how she was going to fix things. There had to be a way to undo the magic that the loyalists had done to erase the rebellion. Dennis (she didn't have a better name for him yet) had been nice enough to explain the current situation and promised he would be back to say more once she was ready. But for the most part, he just ensured that the bonding had restored her memory, and that his trick with the bone dust had done what he intended.

It had been months since that morning, and Joselyn was still taking her time getting back into things. For now, she continued to play the simple town sheriff as she identified who might be spying on her. Who, that was, besides little Scott Utell. She had recognized the Pooka boy immediately, and the two of them had a long discussion. A discussion that had resulted in bringing Gabriel Prosser to her home. They all talked, and Gabriel had agreed with her plan to stay where she was and gradually warm up again rather than leaving immediately. She needed time to grow into this dragon power, and to plan her next move.

It was a normal day, at least as normal as a day could be right now. Joselyn had no need for sleep, so she had spent hours that night practicing in an empty field far, far away from any observers. Just like every other night, she trained, reminded her body of things it already knew how to do, and taught it new things. She practiced with the dragon dust, reveling in how useful it was.

And, also like every other night, she spent hours thinking about her lost family. Deveron was on some very long and deep cover mission in South America and couldn't be reached yet. But he would be the easy one. Her other children, the twins, had been hidden away for decades. They were all grown up, and she had no idea where they could be. But she would find them. Somehow, she would find them, no matter who she had to rip apart in the process.

But right now, Joselyn was simply driving her patrol car. She was in uniform, gazing out the window as she made her way through this small, peaceful town. There was something about this place that seemed like home even now that she knew the truth. She cared about these people, and wanted them to be safe.

Those thoughts were interrupted as a car went speeding around her, blaring its horn obnoxiously as though daring her to try to do something about it. Joselyn squinted that way, hand tightening just a little on the wheel as she muttered, "Drunk tourists." Her hand reached out to touch a photograph of Felicity on the dash. Her daughter was waiting for her to check in back home. "Don't worry, baby. I'll make this quick."

The speeding car had immediately pulled over as soon as she flipped on the lights and sirens. The engine shut off and the driver seemed to be patiently waiting. Joselyn stepped out of her cruiser, took a breath, and walked that way. All she wanted to do was write this jerk a ticket and get back to Felicity.

But all of that went right out of her mind the second she saw the person behind the wheel. This wasn't just a drunk tourist. No, this was so much worse. When she saw his face gazing at her, it took absolutely everything in her to keep her expression neutral. The only thing that stopped her from giving everything away right then was all the practice she'd had as part of the early rebellion. She had learned very well how to lie right to someone's face, how to not give away how she really felt about something.

So, she gave no indication that she had any idea that the man behind the wheel was the most dangerous Necromancer in the world. Instead, she decided to see what he was playing at, and simply asked, "Sir, can you tell me where you're going in such a hurry?"

His response was to look her up and down with an expression that was… disgusting. "You see?" I told you that you'd look very good in a uniform, Joselyn. And here we are."

Okay, that was just about enough of that. But Joselyn didn't want to give away the game too quickly. She knew she'd only get one chance to take him by surprise, and she wanted to make it count. So she simply made herself demand, "Excuse me? Do we know each other?"

Fossor chuckled at first. Then he seemed to get annoyed. "No, this isn't nearly as much fun if you don't understand what's happening. You're nothing now, nothing like you're supposed to be. You need to remember, or it won't be worth the trouble."

"Remember wh--" Joselyn started to ask, already bracing herself as the man summoned a pair of ghosts to grab her. He was going to do… something to restore her memory? Well, she really didn't trust whatever his plan was for that, even if she hadn't already remembered everything.

So, just as the ghosts materialized to grab her arms, Joselyn pivoted. She raised her left hand to point at the translucent figure on that side as she spoke a command word that triggered a spell carefully inscribed just out of sight on the cuff of her shirt. The spell sent a blast of energy into the ghost, vaporizing it immediately.

Meanwhile, with her other hand, Joselyn summoned the dragon bone dust. It poured painlessly out of her palm like sand, shaping and solidifying itself into a sword. A sword that cut right through the ghost on that side before instantly transforming into a whip. That dragon dust whip snapped out and cut through three more ghosts that had formed between her and the necromancer. Then it retracted and became a spear that she hurled through yet another ghost that had been manifesting off to the side. As soon as the spear disintegrated that figure, it broke apart, dissolving back into dust before returning to form a gauntlet around her arm.

That was why Dennis had chosen the method he did. The dragon dust was part of her body now. She could manifest it at any point and transform it into any number of shapes with a thought.

Fossor had just enough time to let out a noise of utter bewilderment and shock before she launched herself that way. He tried to hit her with half a dozen spells, but her dragon-bonded immunity to any magic she didn't want to affect her put a stop to that. Before he could focus enough to teleport away, her fist, with that dragon dust gauntlet, collided with his face hard enough to rock the bastard's head back. She hit him again, and again, knowing it would take far more than that to cut through his defenses. Her body collided with his, knocking him to the ground.

Even as his head rebounded off the pavement, the man spat blood while snapping, "A trick?! Was all of this just a trick, the entire thing!?"

Joselyn slammed her fist into his face yet again, retorting, "Believe me, you're not that special. Especially not now. Or didn't you notice?"

Oh, he noticed all right. When she had knocked him to the ground after punching him so hard, the man had been too distracted to summon his ashes, and now he was laying on bare pavement. He had touched the Earth directly and activated his curse. He was cut off, at least for now, from his own world. All he had were the ghosts that he kept right here on Earth.

And Joselyn was going to make damn sure that wasn't enough.

He finally managed to focus enough to summon a dozen monstrous zombie creatures, one of which grabbed her and hurled the woman away from its master, giving him a chance to scramble to his feet. "A very interesting development," he panted out. "I suppose we'll handle this another time then." With that, he began to cast the spell that would take him far away from this place, while using his monster zombies as a wall between them. It would take him only two seconds to complete that and escape.

Joselyn didn't give him two seconds. A blast of incinerating fire erupted from her extended hand, utterly vaporizing the creatures in her way. Creatures that should have stood up against anything short of a Committee member for at least a minute or so. But that single blast of fire turned them to ash in an instant. At the same time, it was enough to make Fossor himself recoil reflexively.

And when it faded, she was already slamming into the man. But this time, she didn't knock him to the ground. Instead, she flew straight up with him, rocketing into the sky while gripping him tightly with one hand. Her other fist was still encased in that dragon dust gauntlet, which she used to hammer the man's face over and over and over again. He had no time to think, no time to focus, no time to do anything at all. She had taken him completely by surprise and never let up. He'd been cut off from his own planet with those billions of hostages, and now he couldn't collect himself enough to even hope to escape her grasp.

"They tried to get you to leave!" she reminded him, even as her fist slammed into his broken face once more "They tried to send you away from the planet, but you refused! You decided no one was going to force you away from the planet, from our planet! Well, have it your way. Far be it for me to take away your choice. I believe sapient creatures should be given the freedom to make their own choices, and you've made yours! You want to be part of this planet so badly? Let's make that happen."

Those last words came quietly, as they hovered all the way up above the clouds, at least fifteen thousand feet above the ground. And just as Fossor started to realize what she meant, Joselyn abruptly inverted and dove back down. She carried the man with her, holding him out in front of her while her dragon dust formed itself into a whip once more and wrapped around his throat to cut off his screaming. And more importantly, to cut off his casting ability.

They flew like a missile straight down toward an empty spot of land far outside of town. And then Joselyn gave Fossor his wish. She made sure he could never be taken away from this planet.

By pile driving him over three hundred feet down into it at Mach three.