Orphan At The Edge Of The World

The woman grabbed her chest and said, "Oh, you poor thing! Oh, the poor vicar!"

The woman went striding off telling everybody about the b.l.o.o.d.y stairs at the church. Orison might have cheated with glamour a little but if the supernatural wanted to play dirty, it would be foolish to stand by and let a whole town of people get twisted into a mob against him and the detective.

Neil gave him another strange look which prompted Orison to say, "Little white lie time, Neil. I don"t feel like being run out or run through with torches and pitchforks."

Neil said, "You seem awfully good at it."

Getting a little closer, causing Neil to be a bit on edge, Orison said, "I"m a teenager alone and with supernatural gifts, Neil. It"s either this or fates worse than death. What would you choose, before you get insultingly judgmental?.. I"ll buy a decorative urn for Kippers when we get back and make a fundraiser bucket to put in the general store if I have a chance."

Not willing to let the momentum die, Orison spread a little more sympathy PR for the drunk driver he mildly despised while dishing what they "stumbled into" at the church. He even bought a tin of boy scout popcorn and turned it into a donation bucket. He also had Neil watching for suspicious movement which caused the detective to scoff and ask Orison what the teenager thought he was doing while Orison "spread the fertilizer".

Within minutes, the people of the little town temporarily couldn"t have cared less about the city folks that got Old Jim in a bind. And while they were distracted, Orison planted a seed with a few people to make sure that Old Jim spent whatever donation money he got on getting his truck fixed instead of "boozing it up". It was a subtle reminder when the tide shifted back towards hara.s.sing them that the man they were white knighting wasn"t an angel.

It came as no surprise that the forces in play immediately tried to turn a suspicious eye back on them as "suspects" but it was hard to do when Orison had already chopped certain possibilities off at the feet. It was his reason for going to the sheriff"s office before they did anything, creating a fake thief that could catch any and all kinds of gaff and temporary suspension of his ethical qualms about using glamour.

On top of that, it was hard to point fingers at people who were only in town since the evening before when some of the blood had been dried on the steps and walls for who knew how long, a fact Orison was quick to subtly draw attention to during his "story time".

As the church was cordoned off, Neil looked at Orison in frustration and said, "That was our ticket. How are you going to show me anything? How are we going to get to Joshua if we have to stumble over a sheriff who"s going to do everything he can to keep everyone out!"

Orison looked towards the church with faint sadness in his eyes. "There were people there, Neil. There were nearly a dozen people and they were dead by the time we made it there. The source was fueling itself to face us. Now it has to face the scrutiny of the whole town...

"We have somewhere else to be. The things and people who would have been our biggest obstacle and threat are now going to be busy working their dark doings under the blazing sun here....Let"s go."

Working a "don"t notice us" glamour, Orison walked to the boat rental dock. Slapping a dollar on the counter, he signed them out a boat with a note that they were going to do some pleasure paddling to get the horror out of their heads. Surprising Neil, Orison insisted on rowing. It didn"t take the detective long to figure out why as they were cutting through the calm bay waters with the swiftness of a motor boat on low.

In less than ten minutes, they were coming up on the edge of the line Orison could follow when he was tracking his small essence "donation" to Joshua. Neil helped to perch the boat on an outcrop. Neil watched in curiosity as Orison pulled the hidden hood out from the turtleneck and seal it to the edges of his face along with sealing the bottom of the turtleneck to the pants followed by the boots being sealed to tucked pants legs.

Orison smirked. "That"s right. The single set of clothes you always seeing me wear are all kinds of versatile and if you hadn"t killed my motivation by your lackl.u.s.ter enthusiasm over your miracle undies, I might have been convinced to rig something up for you too!"

Neil snorted. "What I don"t understand is why. Are you planning on trying to swim into a tidal cave during high tide?"

Orison nodded. "It"s a little dangerous but I like to be as unpredictable as possible when going to the bad guys" lairs... This is the other side. And while the whole town is drawing attention to the front door, I want to go through the back while everyone thinks it"s locked... Put what you don"t want to get wet together and I"ll wrap them up in my over robe."

Neil didn"t move.

Orison shrugged and said, "Alright then. Stay here and watch the boat by yourself. Good luck."

Orison went to jump in and Neil said, "Wait!"

Looking aggrieved, Neil stripped down and paused at the long legged boxer briefs, contemplating if naked or wet underwear was worse."

The young mage said, "Keep the underwear set on. Not to mention they"re like armor but I can dry them off in a second or two. Everything else would be a lot of trouble, though. That goes double for the gun."

Bundling everything up, Orison led the way into the water with Neil close behind. With an exercise of reserve draining telekinesis, the young mage got them through to the other side before Neil almost used the mask in a panic. Little light of day made it through the water to the other side. Neil could barely see but he could see Orison"s eye"s just fine.

Unable to help himself, Neil fixed onto the dim glow of the young mage"s eyes and breathlessly said, "What are you?"

Leaving Neil to put himself back together, Orison inspected the cave while he said, "Annoyed. Focus on what we"re here for."

The detective bickered, "I don"t know about you, low beams, but I can"t see past my nose in here."

Sighing, the young mage cast out a light and stuck it to the ceiling. Cl.u.s.ters of aquatic life mixed with salty buildup on the cave walls made Orison"s spirit sight all but useless. "Find Objective" only let him see power sources and there was nothing to easily indicate a secret entrance but he knew there had to be one in the cave somewhere. Not for the first time, Orison desperately missed Gan.

For a few seconds, Neil looked at Orison stupefied as the young mage was walking around, feeling things. "Hey, kiddo. You threw a light right beside it. Are you looking for buried treasure or something?"

Orison looked up, confused. It just looked like b.u.mpy ceiling to him. Seeing Orison look genuinely stumped, Neil actually showed a brief flicker of amus.e.m.e.nt. Getting the mage"s help, Neil reached up past what looked like uninterrupted stone to Orison and felt around til he pulled down a rope ladder.

Then it dawned on the young mage what his problem had been. Spirit sight washed everything out and whatever night vision that Rithus"s donated heritage gave him, made shadows fainter or removed them altogether. Normal human eyes could see what his couldn"t, a dark patch the mage light Orison stuck to the ceiling caused. Under normal light conditions, no one else would be able to see it either but whatever supernatural trick was in play and optical illusion did nothing against a light shining directly over the gap.

Suddenly looking a great deal more confident, Neil took the lead. Once they had reached the top, they both focused in on the thick iron door coated with "black paint". Under Orison"s spirit sight, the door buzzed with sinister intent. With a quick movement, the young mage kept Neil from touching it.

"If you touch it, you"ll die. Curse doesn"t even cover what"s on that thing," Orison explained.

Neil said, "For once, I got nothing to say. I get the heebie-jeebies just looking at it. Well, this is your time to shine. Give it the what for and lets get going."

Orison muttered to himself, "I know they"ve got regular people under thrall. I just know it... How would they get through it?"

Neil said, "What"s the hold up?"

Holding back a retort, Orison said, "Brute force will draw too much attention. Directly breaking the "whatever it is" on the door will do the same and probably be hazardous to my health... I"m trying to figure out how the thralls, cultists or whatever mortal agency, opens it without croaking."

Neil said, "Can"t you just open it with your mind? Is that still considered touching it?"

"Only one way to find out I guess. Stand back a bit, just in case," Orison said as he sent a weak bit of telekinesis over to the door, ready to break connection.

Nothing jumped back at the mage. The mixture of magic and a trace of psionic energy just sizzled like bacon for a second before it was gone. It could be done but it would be costly. Building up a maximum safe charge, Orison reached out with telekinesis and yanked. The door didn"t budge because it was locked.

Orison wanted to smack himself for being dumb but there was nothing to be done about the waste. He cast an expensively overcharged unlock and tried again, less than a week"s reserve left. His remaining would have to be used judiciously or it might be some time before he would be using his abilities again for daily needs.

With a screech that left Orison"s teeth itching and both of their nerves frayed, They took a look inside. It was like another world, a terrifying and h.e.l.lish one. The tunnels looked like they were made of flesh. There wasn"t a dry, gore free spot to be seen. From their vantage point, it was as if they were about to walk into a large throat with unswallowed chunks of people and animals stuck all over.

Hearing Neil hyperventilate beside him, Orison suddenly realized that there were alien dimension aspects inside. He quickly covered Neil"s eyes and redid the "don"t think about large b.o.o.bs" trick. Being in a d.a.m.ned either way scenario, Orison asked the detective if the man wanted to wait outside or follow him in. The man"s surprising courage up to that point actually buckled for a second.

Neil said through dry swallows, "Is there a way for me to see without feeling like my brain"s going to leak out of my ears?"

Clueless, Orison asked Herne.

The hunter laughed at Orison"s question as his fascinated gaze never left Flora who was currently "adding some color" to Herne"s domain with a few spirit gra.s.s sprouts taken from the fringes of Orison"s plane. "Anoint his eyes with thine blood, my lord, or find a stone that water and time hath made hollow through. That will let him see truly but mayhaps not without consequence. Tis not the fringes of unfettered realm that is issue here. For certs tis the emanations of a mad G.o.d. Even thine own gifts may not stand proof, my lord."

Orison told Neil, "I can dab your eyelids with a little of my blood and that should stabilize things a bit but not for long. I"m not even fully alright. We need to get in and out as quick as possible."

After getting the go ahead, Orison cut his thumb with his dagger lightly and did the deed while Neil quipped sarcastically, "This day"s just been peachy so far. Let"s take road trips more often. I hear there"s a nice stretch of road paved in good intentions that"ll take you to a prime vacation spot."

Catching a hint of enjoyment from the gallows humor, Orison said, "Yeah, lets find a good top of the line speedster next time. We"ll make sure to soak our shorts in gasoline while we"re at it."

As they made their way in, Neil whispered, "It"s not helping a whole lot. I"m thinking, if we don"t find Joshua close that we"re gonna have to call it a lost cause. I can"t imagine what someone would be like after a couple of hours in here, much less days."

In a round, mucous covered stomach room, they found people chained to the moderately acidic walls in various stages of digestion and monstrous transformation. Orison was horrified that he was responsible for the second part but ultimately, it didn"t matter much. Unpleasant flashbacks of the gold elf testing facilities overlapped with current vision to produce a knee weakening moment for the young mage.

Through watery eyes, Orison muttered to himself, "Keep it together. Shove it down. Nervous breakdowns and PTSD is for AFTER you"re not in danger anymore."

While Neil worked to free the still human looking ones that weren"t gibbering too much, Orison peered further in to see a cleared platform, like an island of ritual s.p.a.ce. On it were four people tied to a seven foot tall standing stone. All four were facing inwards and slumped against it weakly.

Moving closer, all four of the blindfolded people looked towards Orison but only one seemed to have any real energy to the movement and that one said, "How much longer? You"ve already brought us to the edge of death so many times only to bring us back. Our gifts are spent. Just let us die already, please!"

Orison said, "Mr. Carter blackmailed us into coming on a suicide run to rescue you. Do you want to go home or do you believe that death would be better. I"ll try my best to do the first if you want but I"ll grant the second if that"s what you prefer. I know, sometimes death is just better."

The one speaking, Orison recognized a Joshua. The other three were unknown to him but he could feel the faint presence of supernatural power within Joshua and a barely flickering presence of one within a woman next to him. The other two really were "burnt out". All four had severe damage to their channels and none of them looked to have more than a couple of years worth of vitality left in them.

The retribution return had all but been drained back out of them already. Knowing what nasty surprise was hidden inside of it, that was for the best in Orison"s opinion. What wasn"t that good was no one but the woman wanted to live. Joshua, for whatever reason, didn"t believe they"d escape and didn"t want to prolong his suffering anymore.

Before, Neil finished combing through the lost causes for ones to save, Orison delivered a swift and merciful end to the two "burnt out" ones before cutting down the woman and Joshua. "I"m sorry, man. Your sister won"t let my friend off the hook if we don"t try to bring you back. I"m not sure your boss will either. Just try, okay. Just try one more time and if you can"t do it, I"ll understand."

The man wept but the mention of his sister made him nod reluctantly. The unknown woman didn"t say anything, she would only give a nearly imperceptible nod or shake of the head as if she was saving every last precious drop of stamina for one extra second of chance to live. She was the toughest kind of survivor and had likely been here for quite a bit longer if her nearly skeletal frame actually indicated anything compared to the other, less emaciated ones.

It came as no surprise, that mere seconds after they had been taken from the standing stone a shudder ran through the fleshy tunnel. A fire man"s carry over each shoulder, Orison was speed walking back to keep from jarring his shoulders" pa.s.sengers too much. As he pa.s.sed Neil all he said was time"s up and left the man to his own tortured decisions.

As he approached the iron door, a surge of power ran through the tunnel to it and attempted to slam it in his face. With a max push, Orison slammed it with as much telekinetic force as he could. With an agonized look, Neil was right behind him with only two people as well and neither of them looked that capable of recovery but Orison said nothing, only ushered him through.

Making it to the hole in the floor past the iron door, Orison jumped down and pushed another telekinetic shove through stressed channels to cushion their landing. A faint trail of wetness traveled down his nose before a tang of copper spread in his mouth. Enduring a wave of dizziness, Orison looked up to see Neil carrying one partially digested person down the ladder with unshed tears in his eyes.

Edging to the water, Orison said, "Looks like your clothes are going to get wet after all, Neil. You got a mask and you have your choices... Alright, you two. I"m shifting to an underarm carry. What little healing I"ve flashed through you is all I got to give for the moment. Take a few breaths and when I say breath deep, take the best one you can."