Satyr Play 03 Pt. 02

Sigrid saw Nate was aware of his surroundings once more, so she flew past, directing her course towards the spot she'd last seen the demons patrolling the sky.

Their attack came from both sides but did not catch her unaware as they'd planned. She deflected the spear thrust from her left with her shield and knocked the one from her right with her own spear as she sliced the demon's throat with its tip. It squealed and fled as Sigrid switched weapons to her sword to cut through her left opponent's second spear thrust.

It shrieked its rage as it switched to a sword as well. Sigrid was impressed with the savagery of its swordplay, which barely managed to keep her blade at bay. A black streak shot past her back, and she bashed the sword-bearing demon back with her shield as she spun to face the second opponent, but the demon Nate had struck on his way by no longer had a head. She saw it tumbling to the ground as its body followed. She immediately reengaged with her other opponent and sliced through its arm, and gutted it on the return stroke. She listened to its death rattle as she scanned the sky for her next target. She could no longer see Nate, but she saw the Silver Soldiers begin to move onto the office tower's roof. She flew over to land next to them and put her weapons and wings away.

Mick approached her. "You're an Angel?" she asked with a trembling voice.

Sigrid smiled. "Thank you, but no. I'm a Valkyrie."

"They're the same thing to me," Yablonski said with awe.

One of the Silver Soldiers raced away to check for an entrance. He returned immediately. "There's a big set of doors around the corner, but it looks like someone busted through the flankers instead.

Sigrid smiled. "The doors are likely boobytrapped. Smart, Henry."

She turned to the gap in the roof and helped the soldiers lift the others up onto the roof. She glanced out into the darkness around the building, but Nate was nowhere to be seen. She owed him for taking out that demon sneaking up on her. She hoped he was all right.

-=-

Nate was on his knees on the next building's roof, dry heaving over the gravel surface. Nausea, cramps, and dread filled him, but nothing was coming out.

When he'd spotted the demon gliding up to Sigrid's back as she battled another, he knew he had to act. He was above them, so he beat his wings hard to go into a dive and snapped them in tight at the last second as he drew Mab's dagger. He slashed at the demon's neck and was surprised to see he'd cut the head cleanly from its body.

Opening his wings again, he took the strain to swing back up into the air and land on the neighboring roof, a good twenty stories higher than the office tower hosting Mab's castle.

The moment his feet touched the surface, the cursed blade released the life force it had ripped from the demon into Nate.

He was immediately overwhelmed by a barrage of sickening sensations assailing his sense of taste, smell, and touch. It felt like he'd been kicked into a city's human waste treatment tank with a few dozen bloated corpses thrown in to spice it up. He dropped forward onto his hands and knees and heaved but gained no relief.

When he finally got control once more, he looked at the dagger resting on the stones like it was a viper about to strike. He didn't want to pick it up again, but he knew he had to save Henry from Mab.

Thoughts of the evil Queen caused a surge of rage to flash through his mind. He needed to kill that bitch! He glanced down and saw the dagger was in his hand once more. He vowed not to put it down until it had sucked the life from her body. He didn't even pause to wonder at his rapid change of heart regarding the dagger or the intensity of his need for vengeance.

He leapt off the roof, a new eagerness coursing through him and a feeling of power he hadn't experienced before. It felt good, which was a relief after feeling so awful.

Nate looked forward to the joy he'd feel once Mab was dead.

-=-

Roy was staring at a dead body, the first casualty in their assault of Mab's castle. It had a devastating effect on the upbeat attitudes of the Silver Soldiers as it was one of theirs.

Once they were all inside the building, Specialist Green had run forward to do a quick check on the ground floor level and hadn't returned. The castle wasn't that large, so he should have returned instantly. Roy and the Colonel managed to keep the other soldiers from rushing ahead to find him.

They moved as a group and took in the damage they assumed Henry had inflicted upon Mab's art collection. This would have driven the Fae Queen into an absolute rage.

When they came around the corner to face the stairs leading up to the second floor, they saw Green was down. Crane snapped at his people to stop as several made to run forward. They could see the specialist was frozen mid-run, but his head and the top of his shoulders had been sheared off his body. Something had cut through the soldier cleanly. Green's frozen expression of shock looked back at them, lifeless.

"Mary, move forward, slowly," Roy said.

She nodded to him and stepped lightly as she moved closer to the body. She was ten feet from it when she stopped and stepped back. "Something here." She touched her neck and saw blood on her fingers. That surprised and frightened her. Eleanor moved next to her and examined her skin, but it had already resealed. The surgeon pulled a tissue from her pocket and held it out before her until she saw a thin red line of Mary's blood appear on the tissue. She draped it over the ultra-thin wire strung up across the hall and stepped back. They couldn't see the wire, but it held up the tissue.

Roy looked to Mick. "He hit the wire at speed, and it went right through him. If it can cut through Mary's skin, it must be exceptionally strong and thin.

Mahati moved up to the wire and gestured with all four of her hands before it. The thread began to vibrate like a plucked guitar string. "It's metallic and under high stress. It can be compromised with intense heat." Her hands moved once more, and a vertical bar of white-hot light moved up the hallway. The tissue ignited, and the wire broke with a sharp ping, shredding the paper as it snapped back to its anchor points on the sides of the hallway, the wood panels splintering under the impact.

"How are you able to use your magic after you lost your glamor to the Wild Magic!" Investigator Keshellion complained.

Mahati turned to give the old Fae a haughty look. "I'm a Nāga. We are magic."

She moved forward and launched her wire burning spell once again as they reached the stairs. Every second step had a wire at ankle height.

"I'd like to strangle Mab with these wires," Roy growled. Crane nodded as he bent to touch Specialist Green's head gently.

Each member of his squad paid their respects as the group proceeded up the stairs.

"STOP!"

Mahati froze and looked back at Siobhan, who was staring wide-eyed at something up the hallway.

"What is it?" Roy asked.

Siobhan shook her head. "I don't know what it means, but there's no magic in this hallway at all. It's a big dead zone. Magic is avoiding this space."

"It's a sinkhole. Any being supported by magic will be incapacitated in this area. There will be focal points to draw the energy away," Keshellion offered.

"What do the focal points look like?" Crane asked.

"Miniature glass orbs," the Investigator explained.

Gordon nodded and stepped forward until a hand caught his sleeve. He looked back at Corporal Dulane. "Sir, I believe this is something I should be doing, not you."

The Colonel looked at his driver and saw the serious look in his eye. He finally nodded.

The soldier moved forward into the hallway and spotted what looked like a marble stuck to the wood paneling. He used his knife to pry it loose, and the orb turned black. He glanced back and saw the pretty brunette smiling at him. She was so beautiful, and her Irish accent gave him butterflies in his stomach. He fantasized briefly about asking her out once all this craziness was over.

The fact that she could see magic told him she wasn't human. It made him wonder if her appearance was an illusion hiding something terrifying. This made him look to the others.

Dulane saw the urgency on their faces, so he stopped wondering about the beauty and sped up his efforts, moving down one side of the hall and working his way back up the other side. Siobhan called out encouragements as she tracked how the dead zone was filling in with magic as he worked.

A deep boom shook through the castle, the sound seeming to come from above, and the chandeliers down the hall exploded, casting everyone into darkness.

"The dead zone is gone, but we now have company!" Siobhan cried as she saw the outline of beings rushing down the hall towards them. The Corporal was invisible to her.

"Dulane! Run toward my voice!" the Colonel called out.

Mick and Yablonski caught the running man before he could slam into their boss. "We've got you," Mick said quietly. "Colonel, we've got this. We can see."

The Silver Soldiers shot forward and quickly dealt with the troop of Goblins. With the loss of Green, they didn't hold back their need for vengeance. The marine was particularly savage, and the last of the grey-skinned creatures died within the first ten seconds of battle. It took another ten for the soldiers to stop. The Marine took another five before Mick told him enough.

To clear a path, they kicked the bodies against the walls then shook off the gore. Luckily, nothing stuck to their new skin. Their clothes were another story. Aside from the Sergeant, they removed their soiled uniforms and left them over the bodies.

Mick had to keep her uniform as it had pockets. She rushed back to the Colonel. "Hostiles dealt with, sir."

"I could bring out my armor," Sigrid suggested.

"No, too bright," Roy asserted.

Mahati created a ball of white light hovering above her, which lit up the area around them. She led them forward with Siobhan at her side, watching for strange patterns in the ambient magic.

"I-I think the castle is beginning to die," she said hesitantly.

"It's due to the iron piercing its foundations. It's broken the bindings between the castle and its magic," Keshellion remarked from the rear.

Nuru looked up at the ceiling. "Are we in danger of the castle collapsing on us?"

The old Fae scowled at her. "It wasn't magic that built this castle, and it isn't magic that holds it together. There were layers upon layers of magic bound to its walls and foundation, but their function is to support the spells cast within them."

"Stone castles are not meant to be tilted," Gordon Crane insisted.

The Fae tilted her head to him. "Yes, that's unfortunately true."

Sigrid made an impatient sound. "Then let's get Henry and Marisa and get the hell out!"

"Is no one else going to ask about that boom?" Camila asked.

"There's no point in conjecture. Let's get upstairs and find out!" Roy growled as he moved up beside Mahati and encouraged her to move faster.

Rounding the corner, they could see the stairs up and the dead body of an Ogre with a spear through its chest.

As she passed the corpse, Minkah cast an evaluating glance at the placement of the spear. "A skilled attack."

Roy snorted. "This is Henry we're talking about. He's not a fighter. That was luck."

"You don't think he has it in him to be a killer?" Minkah asked curiously and watched as Roy shared uncomfortable glances with Camila and Sigrid. "What? What did I miss?"

Roy looked back at the assassin. "Henry can kill. Henry has killed. It's just... the boy isn't mentally wired to understand its necessity in particular circumstances. He has a difficult time with it."

Mahati checked the stairs again but found no more wires. They rushed up to the third floor and were relieved the lights were working on this level. Mahati released the light orb. After confirming there were no booby traps, they hustled down the hall.

In one of the chambers off the hallway, they spotted two more ogres, this time with their skulls crushed.

"Luck, you say?" Minkah said with a smirk.

On the fourth, they stepped over the bodies of the Goblins Henry killed as they rushed forward.

"I take it back," Roy said. "He's managing quite well."

Another massive boom shook the castle, and it was definitely much louder on this floor, so it had to be coming from Mab's chamber upstairs. The stairs at the end of the hall suddenly collapsed, and massive stone slabs fell from the ceiling further up the corridor. Through the large gap, they spotted Henry surrounded by a bright green aura. More stones began to fall from the ceiling, and Henry turned his head to lock eyes with Roy.

The floor suddenly dropped under everyone's feet as the castle collapsed further into the office tower. They were thrown from their feet and fell a short distance to land softly in tall red grasses.

Roy scrambled to his feet but above him was only orange sky. He looked around and saw others from the rescue party poking their heads up from the grasses in surprise. The look of awe on Raymond and Eleanor's faces indicated their delight. They were certainly being exposed to new and exciting experiences.

"Did... did Henry just dump us in Eden?" Camila asked incredulously.

Sigrid stood and screamed her frustration. Everyone shielded their eyes from the flash of white light.

"Hey! Put it away!" Roy snapped, equally frustrated.

"How are we supposed to rescue him if he keeps protecting us!" she yelled. She struggled to calm herself as she hid her armor and weapons once more.

"Did everyone make it?" Gordon asked as he quickly scanned the group with his eyes, looking for his squad first.

A quick headcount showed some were missing. Mick, Yablonski, Gunnery Sergeant Endale, Dulane, Lorelei, Investigator Keshellion, and Nuru's two attendants had all been at the back of their party and may have been out of Henry's sightline. Nuru was present and had been standing just before her people.

"How do we get back?" the Succubi leader asked nervously.

Sigrid pointed up the field towards the sparkling people watching them from the edge of the forest. "The Glass People can open tears too."

Several Silver People ran down the hill to stop in front of them. Specialist Feinberg, one of the Colonel's squad, reached forward to grasp the offered hand. After a moment, they released, and the new Silver People ran back up the hill.

"What did he say, David?" Gordon asked.

"I shared images as he didn't speak English. He's going to speak to the Glass People to let them know we're coming and need immediate passage back home," the specialist explained.

"Excellent! Thank you, David." Crane looked to the others. "Let's go."

Henry was still alive and managed to save them from the collapsing building. Camila prayed Marisa was safe too.

As she followed the others through the tall grasses towards the Glass People's gathering spot, she failed to notice the sleeping beauty in the grasses a few yards away.

-=-

Mick, Yablonski, and Endale stood on the staircase, holding Dulane, Keshellion, and Lorelei respectively. Their charges had some bruising from being grabbed and yanked back, but they'd been spared the fate of the two Succubi who'd been crushed under a falling stone slab.

"Are the others dead?" Yablonski cried.

"No, I saw them falling through those tears the Satyr creates," the Investigator gasped quietly as her ribs ached.

"What the fuck do we do now?" Yablonski whispered as he looked at the base of the stairs, which were impassible, the top of the stairs, which were also blocked, and upwards where the rippling glow of lights could be seen through the gap of a missing stone slab.

Lorelei patted Endale's big hand to catch his attention and to get him to release his grip. "Can you lift me up so I can see what we're facing up there?" she asked quietly.

The marine nodded and cupped his hands for her to step in. Then he easily lifted her until she could peek over the stone's edge into the chamber above. She stifled a gasp as she was looking into the floor above.

Just a few feet beyond the stone she was peering over, the floor dropped away. The fourth level had collapsed into the third and had taken it down to the second. Up and ahead, she could see an intact span of the fifth floor being held up by a few damaged columns and sections of the outer walls.

On that span of the fifth floor, Lorelei could see Henry kneeling, his head dropped forward in exhaustion, the green aura around him fed by a thread of light coming down from the aurora borealis in the sky above. The green light was back in the sky?!?

Behind Henry, standing before a partially broken picture window, a young and pretty woman panted from some severe effort. She still had enough energy to sneer at Henry with an expression of glee.

"This is why you are weak! This is why you lose, again and again! You waste your energy on those unworthy of it. They are meaningless!" the young beauty crowed.

"No, Mab. They're my friends, and they mean everything!" Henry growled, but his voice was strained.

"You can't protect them. They're all going to die! Whether you're there or not, I will see them all die. This world, my world, needs a fresh start with new life. None who exist today are worthy of living in my new world!" Mab exclaimed.

Looking around her, Lorelei saw there was room to stand and enough shadows to be hidden from the goings-on above.

She looked down at the marine. "Higher, we need everyone out of that hole."

He lifted her higher until she was able to kneel on the edge and reach down. "Next."

She helped Keshellion out of the hole and Dulane, who took over once he was out.

Soon they were all on an intact section of the fourth floor.

"How can we help him?" Mick asked.

"You can't. Do not try."

Lorelei squeaked in fright as a crone stepped out of the shadows behind them. Her eyes immediately went to the child in the old woman's arms. She saw blue eyes, full of joy. She immediately wanted to hold the baby, and she'd never felt that way before for a child.

Then the old woman's voice pulled up Lorelei's memories, and she locked eyes with the witch. "You!"

"Another disappointment," Baba snapped.

Lorelei rocked back from the verbal slap, and her voice stuck in her throat. She wanted to sing a song of this miserable creature's death, but her anger blocked her. Her face flushed, and her mouth worked, but she realized how powerful the woman was when she made a gesture, and all three Silver Soldiers fell back into the hole above the stairwell.

Her mouth snapped shut in a well-timed surge of self-preservation.

Baba stepped to the edge of the pit over the remains of the fourth and third floors and hopped over to a stone sticking out of the wall. She leapt from stone to stone, making her way around the perimeter until she was able to land on the remains of the fifth floor.

The sergeant rejoined Lorelei on the platform and immediately pulled out her cell to record the events above them. Lorelei noticed Mab no longer appeared confident, though she looked down her nose at the old woman.

She hoped Baba was here for more than intimidation tactics.

-=-

Henry was aching from the beating he'd taken so far and tired from the drain caused by using magic.

He'd made it to Mab's floor and kicked the doors down. This had the bonus effect of stunning the two Ogres hiding behind them. He'd picked up a dropped mace and stomped the skull of its owner. The other managed to land a few glancing blows with his weapon until Henry leapt forward, breaking the Ogre's ankle with a sharp kick. They grappled on the ground, the Ogre getting in a few more punches until Henry got behind him with an arm wrapped around its neck.